This Blog Is Full Of Crap

As part of the Katrina Blogging Awareness Thing:

The IFOC Cats kindly request that when you donate to help the human victims of Katrina, you not forget to kittycat victims of Katrina as well.

"Never question the heart of a champion," said Rudy T.

Let's look at the definition of champion for a moment:

1. One that wins first place or first prize in a competition.
2. One that is clearly superior or has the attributes of a winner: a champion at teaching.
3. An ardent defender or supporter of a cause or another person: a champion of the homeless.
4. One who fights; a warrior.

Well, this is sure to make the wires and push out the good stories coming from my city with regards to welcoming in refugees...

Weary, frustrated evacuees whose patience already was stretched to the limit by Katrina's wrath felt even more hopeless Wednesday as they were turned away from the Reliant Astrodome, where they sought shelter after state officials announced the landmark could be used by those displaced from New Orleans' Superdome.

Storm victims who made it to Houston on their own instead of being evacuated by bus from New Orleans were not allowed past the Astrodome's gates.

"We have nowhere to go, nowhere to sleep," fumed Rhonda Calderon of New Orleans, still crammed in a Nissan Maxima with seven other people after a 14-hour drive. "We came to Houston seeking shelter. Our kids are hungry. We have no gas. What do we do?"

The Astrodome was the fifth shelter Calderon and her family had visited.

"Everybody keeps turning us away," she said.

Maybe Ray Nagin should quit with the bodycounts and the pottymounth on CNN for a few minutes and assign someone (possibly himself) to assist with the Red Cross in getting their shit together to make sure that bureacratic bullshit doesn't keep people from getting help. These are his people we're trying to deal with, and if we're not handling them right, we'd love for someone elected by a majority of them to be responsible for them to kindly let us know.

You know, Bush thanked us last night. We, as a city, won't just wait around for the rest of the country to follow suit. We'll try harder to earn it.

There are some, however, who are just going by the playbook like robots. Well-intentioned people incapable of seeing the bigger picture, and that's what's resulting in the Astrodome hitting all the headlines and these folks getting turned away.

Well, Red Cross, what did you expect? Desperate people to just sit idly by while their mayor babbles like a retard about bodycounts, swearing like a sailor, and generally explaining with his incompetence the evils of voting for someone on race-lines?

The last thing we need in this city are beaming, smiling volunteers working hard at telling people to piss off. Not only is it wrong, but there's a bunch of television reporters in Crawford who no longer have Mama Moonbat to rub against and would love nothing more to keep up their nasty brand of journalism to find fault with an entire city.

I agree that those who hinder relief efforts or make magnanimous offers of aid and then yank the welcome mat back on technicalities to be uncompassionate simple-minded hypocritical pond scum, and they should be shamed with every microphone, camera, stenopad, and cave painting available. They need the journalistic equivalent of a James Byrd done to them to let everyone else know that the goal to to help. But seeking only those stories out and ignoring the good is sensationalist news, poor journalism, and a failure to inform the public or serve the public trust.

Can we consider these so-called journalists who seek out only the bad in our town to be looters, too? Picking through the events of the day, hauling away tales of misery and incompetence like water-logged vandals with a stack of Nikes in all the wrong sizes, and heading off to their hidey-hole to leer over their ill-gotten gain?

There's a song by Robert Palmer that comes to mind that begins:

Johnny's always running around, trying to find the good in things.

Houston's opening its symbolic heart, the Astrodome, to help people. But The antijohnny Journalists will do their best to find the ugly, nasty angles of it.

I repeat: "Never question the heart of a champion," said Rudy T.

Enron's "Crooked E" is long gone. Compaq, Continental, and other major job-shedding local employers have stopped bleeding jobs for a while now. Yes, we're all fat, but we don't see you cutting back on the calories while you stuff your faces while living on your networks' expense accounts.

Count your supply of tapes. There's more good going on here that can fit on them. If you think that leaves room for the bad, that's your decision. But remember - if you look down your noses at our city or you keep sticking them in only where you think bad news will be instead of reporting in a fair and balanced fashion, we'll remind you of another quote from Rudy: "AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!"

That's from when he was on the wrong end of Kermit Washington's fist.

All those hotel rooms you use to cover this "story" in your usual miserable and nasty style can easily be handed over to the refugees who need them. Charity may begin again in your temporary home.

There are people needing help. That's the story. Help them get the help they need, or hightail it back to your hellholes.

(Via Mike Yarosh)

NEW YORK TIMES: After A Decade Of Ignoring Security, New York Learns How's Boss

Manhattan has always been vulnerable to Islamic terror, but over the years people have made things worse, particularly in the World Trade Center, where a pair of hijacked airliners struck yesterday. Since the 19th century, when New York real estate prices required land claimants to construct towering skyscrapers for maximum occupancy and profit, people have been trying to dominate the region's landscape and the forces of its nature.

(Read the actual story from a pair of judgemental pricks sitting in their ivory tower sitting on stolen real estate at the New York Times.)

These ambassadors of the Old Grey Lady have firmly established that the "I (heart) NY" post-9/11 era is officially over. And since London will be hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, there's no sense gussying stuff up for the Olympics, either.

It's time for them to get back on their feet on their own. End all federal aid to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Lower Manhattan. Now.

For those reporters who question the value of Federal flood insurance and the tendency of people to build in riskier areas with that safety net in place, well, the World Trade Center and the displaced residents of Lower Manhattan had private insurance, right? If we're going to start yanking subsidies for the Gulf Coast to build in risky ways, I guess the Feds shouldn't be rebuilding some gigantic buildings that will attract Islamic Fundamentalists like catnip on a scratching post attracts cats.

They don't need some America-bashing museum.
They don't need some useless clear spire rising into the sky.
They don't need a pair of Trump Towers.

Instead, they need a big gaping whole to remind them of what they've lost: a pair of buildings, but long before that their compassion for the rest of the country that busted its back and its economy trying to keep their financial stranglehold on the rest of the country from dooming us all.

Or better yet, build a refinery there. Want to bitch about the price of gasoline? Well, start making your own gas, Manhattan.

Unless you've had the good luck not to suffer through Milto Hamilton's constant plugging of sponsors through the airwaves, you're probably well-familiar with the Landry's Crawford Boxes at Minutemaid Park. They're named after a chain of overpriced local restaurants and the street that Minutemaid Park clogs like Louie Anderson's coronary arteries every so often.

The Crawford Boxes sit atop one of those charming manual scoreboards that are worth a good long day in the ER when someone flops over the railing or a fly ball lures an outfielder to make smacky-smacky with the wall.

Hey, at least Wrigley's got ivy over their brick.

The Crawford Boxes give you an excellent view of the field as well as a great place to hear the cannon-boom when a home run is scored.

They're also unusually close in, providing a 315-foot left field corner foul pole and not much more than that at its right end, where the oddball shape of the field helps singles turn into doubles, doubles into triples, and triples into happy little dwarves who sing all day as they work in the diamond mines.

They also make fly balls turn into home runs that, in other parks, are an easy out. Look at MLB.com spray charts for the Astros, and you'll find a buttload of "h" there for right-handed batters.

Case-in-point, last night's last dinger of the evening. Number ten in the program but number two in your hearts, Jose Vizcaino went the whole season without a long ball this year. Jose's one of my favorite MLB players, a utility man who can cover any positition on the club but Vice President of Marketing (I bet he'd be a whiz once he gets an MBA and a language tutor, though). He's a darn good shortstop, an excellent base stealer, and a role model for the younger players.

And now, he's got a home run this year. Thanks to those Crawford boxes.

Seat 1, Row 1, Section 100. Just. Barely. Over. The. Wall.

I watched that ball come in from four rows back. I know that Vizzy's not a power hitter, and by all rights this man shouldn't have anything but a goose-egg by that HR stat.

Oh well.

Speaking of balls flying around the Crawford Boxes, the Landry's Chicks come by every inning to harass us and make us perform like circus monkeys to their delight. They hold up WAVE signs and "GET LOUD" signs. When we, the public, dance to their tune, they give us presents.

And, like any other day in Crawford Boxville, they were tossing toys around once again. This time, they were bottle openers, koozies, and baseballs.

Sometimes, they toss magnets. Or stuffed stripey fishy toys. No stuffed stripey toy fish that Nardo might like. Darn.

When the Chicks tossed a baseball to me, I felt it and realized that Nardo wouldn't want it as a toy.

So I gave it to the nice elderly couple next to us that I'd casually reached my left arm across to snag the ball. It was theirs by rights, anyway, and I'm sure they'd get more fun out of it than Nardo would.

Bob got a bottle opener. He offered it as a gift, but Nardo doesn't like bottle openers, and my wife drinks Miller Lite from cans.

That's my thoughts on one small, weird piece of this city. Maybe if the entire city were just like the Crawford Boxes, only bigger, or maybe evn the world just like it... things would be... would be...

Pretty damn insane.

I guess a Crawford Boxes-sized Crawford Boxes are more than enough for this world.

I have posted the solution to looting at IMAO.

The Indians are officially gone.

We only have three people on tickets today.

The queue is skyrocketing.

Remember the neighbor's kitten?

I call him Little Squeaky.

He was outside this morning, walking along the fence and squeaking up a storm. I couldn't tell if he was saying hello or hungry or thirsty. RTW2 was already there, so no time to put out a pair of bowls or anything, but I did get a photo or two of him that I'll post tonight.

He still had nailcaps and a collar on, so I'm assuming his appearances and disappearances aren't just him holing up in a dumpster somewhere all by his lonesome. Plus, he's friendly enough that there's some kind of generic human-feline bond in his furry little mind.

I don't like the fact that Little Squeaky is outside unsupervised with safeties on his weapons array. Nardo could easily kill him for sport, and we'd only know when we'd hear the CLANG on the patio table ater he lands back from a successful hunt.

I really need to find that neighbor and let them know that if he's going to be indoor/outdoor, they're going to have to let his claws loose. Otherwise, Little Squeaky's needs to be indoor or get supervised play-time in the new park they're putting together across the street.

On top of the rumors that the New Orleans Saints will be playing at the Alamodome, I guess it makes perfect sense that San Antonio will take in another 25,000 refugees to fill it.

A note to the people who are setting fires, rioting, and looting in New Orleans who think they can pul lthat shit here in Texas: Our jails our full, space for new landfills is plenty. Behave yourselves.

A while back, I suggested that one possible new use for the Astrodome would be a prison.

If we're truly getting the worst-of-the-worst shoving their way to the front of the lines for the buses like the reactionary new-looter journalists are shrieking, sadly, this may be the scenario that ends up playing out after all.

But I wouldn't put it past the HPD to shoot first and ask questions later, as long as the questions are "Who's buying the first round when our shift is over?"

Rescue operations in New Orleans to bring folks from there to here have been disrupted and halted. The shooters and looters are getting restless.

You know, this happens every now and then in Gaza when the natives get out of control, demanding jobs and such while waving AK-47s around.

You're acting like a bunch of gaddamed Palestinians, people. You are Americans, dammit. We are better than this shit. Suck it up for just another day or two. You can do it.

Now I'm really starting to feel uneasy about the gigantic welcome mat Texas has laid out. And Mayor White is acting like there's enough cops to keep the situation under control at the Dome when we're short of cops and they're retiring at an accelerated rate.

Maybe we're going to need the Minutemen to patrol both the illegal riff-raff on Westpark and the legal riff-raff on South Main soon.

I don't care where this came from or what the backstory behind it is...

It's just downright scary.

Oh, and this too:

It's Uncle Arik's Playhouse!

Brought to you by the letters gimel, shin, and the numbers 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 2000.

Metroblogging Houston has a whole slew of photographs from Reliant Park/Astrodome as the press stakes out the incoming refugees.

I get the distinct feeling they're going to be there not to cover the relief effort but are waiting like wolves for whatever goes wrong.

For those that are, put down that damn camera and pick up a cot. You're more use doing real work.

On the other hand, David Benzion of Lone Star Times has been liveblogging from the scene. I have every confidence that he'll provide fair, balanced, factual coverage of the events unfolding there as compared to the sensationalist news-looters descending upon our town.

Which is why I think folks will avoid linking to his efforts. After all, why go with the truth when just a magnified microscoping portion of it sounds so juicy, right?

MeMo points to this interesting look at the same event from two pairs of eyes.

I think she's on to something with this:

Here would be an interesting project for a journalism student: Track the bad information you get in the course of this news story. Urban legends thrive in a vacuum, and rumors fester. Reporters learn to be skeptical consumers of information all kinds -- I remember the sorts of stories that trickled back from 9/11, a good portion of them ultimately untrue.

Is it possible to cast all politics aside (thus disqualifying Columbia Journalism Review) and objectively rate the accuracy of news sources? Is there an objective way to measure the reliability of a particular writer or correspondent, tracking their career like an athlete?

DAN RATHER
Position: Local Correspondent
Batting Avg: .873

Position: Local Anchor
Batting Avg: .888

Position: National Correspondent
Batting Avg: .573

Position: Network Anchor
Batting Avg: .500

Position: Managing Editor, Newsmagazine
Batting Avg: .173

What units do you measure Trust in? (Epinions measured then by trusters as well as trusters of trusters in a complex formula nobody ever really liked) Or do you measure them in units of Horseshit? (The Epinions Distrust list factor)

Do you separate editorial content and news like you separate switch-hitters from the left and the right? Can you add in factors for news management, where a correspondent teamed with a particular producer or news editor can generate stats as well:

DAN RATHER and MARY MAPES
Double-plays: 10
Combined errors: 15

I'd suggest measuring it in units of Geraldos or Capones. One Geraldo equals the amount of bullshit you found in his hyped-up Capone's Vault story.

Perhaps this measurement in Geraldos can be applied to politicians, where "Bush Lied, People Died" can be easily converted into a number and then stacked up against Ted Kennedy's willful vehicular manslaughter and coverup, Bush-41's failure to "finish the job" in 1991, Bill Clinton's hand-wringing which led to the death of 800,000 Rwandans, Kofi's stewardship over millions of slaughtered refugees worldwide, etc.

I'm sure someone's working on it for bloggers, beyond the X-watch.blogspot.com factor. (No need to measure my Geraldo Factor. My domain name is my disclaimer.)

MLB.com has the video.

Go to Vizcaino's homer, watch where it lands, and then look up and to the left.

There's also a glimpse when Lane bounces one off the railing one foot away.

It's the Adventures of Bob and Deranged Qualls Fan!

We now have the capacity of detail and quarrantine foreign carriers of nasty rashes, diseases, and plagues.

I guess that means virulent moonbat protestor-types will continue to fly into and out of Dallas then.

The winner will be my tagline for September.

First off, welcome to Houston!

[INSERT YEEHAW HERE]

Please be aware that the Age of Consent in Texas is 17.

Now, this won't affect Louisianans at all, but Mississippi and Alabama residents used to an Age of Consent of 16 will need to adjust their dating practices accordingly.

For those of you familiar with Daylight Savings Time, think of this as "Virginity Savings Year."

If you're not familiar with the number seventeen, it's both of your hands, your left foot, and them some.

If your parents and grandparents are your uncles and aunts, your finger and toe count may vary. Please seek assistance from a local Red Cross volunteer to aid in demonstrating the number seventeen.

PS:
Please, hands off the horses. Especially the ones the cops are riding. Although they will likely be flattered at the attention, neither the cop nor the horse will appreciate your amorous advances while they're on duty.

Based on this information, I am placing my trust in Harrison's judgement and removing my link to the Humane Society.

Here's something I say every day: "Man, do I feel stupid."

Yes, I have a macro for it.

Please check the other links on that site as well as what The Chronicle, Lone Star Times, and blogHouston.

Lots of us are running off of a network install of Linux. It runs a lot better than the Windows installs on the desktops themselves. Very flexible. Fast.

The image server was reset this morning in the middle of the shift.

No warning. No announcement.

Just people stalling, standing up, looking around. That kind of thing.

Someone comes out with the "Um... err..." post-mortem.

But, hey. It could we worse.

We could be on Windows.

I think that the Armed Forces should start recruiting crazy people.

Imagine, a guy in uniform, gibbering like a madman, arguing with himself while clutching his gun.

The scene fades. A voice booms "An Army Of Two."

Okay, maybe not.

From me, at one of my worse moments:

You know, this happens every now and then in Gaza when the natives get out of control, demanding jobs and such while waving AK-47s around.

You're acting like a bunch of gaddamed Palestinians, people. You are Americans, dammit. We are better than this shit. Suck it up for just another day or two. You can do it.

From the Survival of New Orleans Livejournal:

The Superdome looks like the Jenin refugee camp.

Shit.

Maybe we won't have to demolish the Astrodome after all. We'll just let this imported workcrew from New Orleans do it.

More thoughts on Best Case-Worst Case scenarios later. Litterboxes demand cleaning.

Refugees willingly submit to simple biometric identification to ease processing and identification. Act like a schmuck, we'll know who you are. Have fun in the Dome.

A portion of the New Orleans Police Department is deputized and used to assist in law-enforcement issues regarding New Orleans refugees. Refugees who show appropriate aptitude and attitude are deputized as well and offered permanent positions in HPD or HFD.

A portion of New Orleans civil government is "deputized" to handle processing and management of information and social services for refugees in parallel with City of Houston, Harris County, and State of Texas.

The Astrodome is treated as a triage center from where government and private placement concerns work together to direct people to shelters within the city or in other cities around the country. When all those who can be placed are placed, naturally the remainders will be the "unplaceables." Those are "warehoused" in either prison conditions or redirected in manners to afford them opportunities to cause the city the least amount of harm.

METRO's capacity is increased to allow for easy transportation of individuals to various worksites and training centers. Free bus and rail pass, but can be revoked should you break the law.

Parallel jobs program to educate refugees for refinery work and refinery construction. Then pick a few locations for new refineries to increase capacity, whether here in Houston or elsewhere in the United States.

Blood donation, medical testing, and other exploitative work "opportunities" are forbidden to prevent abuse.

As painful and ugly zero tolerance policies are, HISD enacts no-bullshit zero tolerance policy for disciplinary purposes to enforce order and calm at overcapacity schools. New Orleans refugees showing appropriate aptitude and attitude are used as classroom assistants to teach or assist in "crowd control" issues to free up local attention and resources on classwork. Same rules apply to all.

Local employers are given a combination of carrot-and-stick to provide jobs to refugees. Tax breaks for those who hire them on a temporary basis until New Orleans is functional again. A final blanket warning regarding illegal alien workers in place of refugee migrants. If you're caught using an illegal instead of a local or a refugee, penalties are triple. Contractors who use illegals on government contract work on any level are banned for life from bidding on government contracts.

FEMA-contracted buses that were used to bring refugees here are also used to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico. Bill for fuel used is sent to Presidente Fox.

Agencies that provide welfare services to illegal aliens are given a final warning that harboring fugitives is, in fact, a felony. Furthermore, providing aid to an individual solely based on race and ethnic background is considered a discriminatory practice. Either retool your facilities and policies to aid in refugee assistance or face possible criminal charges. Training facilities are retooled towards construction labor for housing, schools, and refinery work.

When New Orleans becomes manageable, the situation would be:

• Refugees gain valuable work skills and are ready to go back and rebuild.

• They police their own.

• The truly bad seeds that run wild will be weeded out naturally by terminal interaction with well-armed locals.

• Decreased reliance on illegal labor.

• Discipline problems at HISD go down, teachers can focus on classwork.

• Construction on refinery capacity will not be hindered for lack of available labor and resources.

But I'd be interested to see what local Rice, UH, and St. Thomas policy wonks have to say. Where's Professor Stein, the go-to guy for the media when you need him most?

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IFOC) - U.S. Mint announces limited-edition Louisiana quarter redesign to reflect current state of calmn and smugness in New Orleans due to successful deployment of emergency disaster plans.

Still on the top of Andrew Sullivan's site:

IT'S OUR FIFTH ANNIVERSARY!

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION.

Yes, he links a certain person's list of charities. Where is it? Iif you scroll down a bit... keep scrolling... and scrolling... ten screens.

And, after all this time, I finally agree with something on Daily Kos.

Why vote for Frank?

Let me tell you about Frank.

Frank feels your pain. And, if you're evil or a monkey, he's the cause of it.

Frank invented penicillin. No shit.

Frank is the spirit of America. No, not the plane. That… spirit thing.

Frank loves everyone. Especially people who give him money. Or, give him things he wants, but doesn't ask for money in return.

But most importantly, Frank has me locked in this room, and he won't let me out until IMAO Podcast is number one at Podcast Alley.

Please, for the love of God and all that is holy, vote now.

Vote for Frank right now.

(Plus all the other people who bust their asses to make Frank look most Frankly)

Does the influx of 100,000 refugees from New Orleans put Houston up another DMA market to #9?

Gallo comes out, and here he comes...

OOGAH BOOGAH!
OOGAH BOOGAH!
OOGAH BOOGAH!
OOGAH BOOGAH!

Double play to clear Gallo's man, and then a big K.

Did someone say Qualls is the man?

I say Qualls is the man!

To all New Orleans refugees, the number one lesson you must learn in coming to this city is that QUALLS IS THE MAN!

And for all thouse Katrina refugees out there looking for Bourbon Street in your new home, well, look no further!

Chron.Commies are now blogging from inside New New Orleans.

Matt B. is live audioblogging from the Astrodome.

David Benzion and the Lone Star Times crew are at the site.

Idiotic yet surprisingly convincing "press credentials" have been created; LST’s crack reporting staff will soon be fanning out.

Apparently, the difference between one of those highfalootin MSM reporters and a citizen journalist is just a color printer and some slick paper.

You know, I've noticed that quite a few major bloggers haven't been pointing to local Houston livebloggers like Matt and the Chronicle folks. Instead, lots of New York Times and Washington Post and MSNBC links.

Not good. Remember, The Jarvis saith "LOCAL!"

The shit is going on right here. The story will be reported from here.

Find the local Houston bloggers flooding the zone on this, and then email them or give them feedback with the questions you want them to ask the refugees, charity workers, and authorities when they have them available.

After all, news is a conversation.

Oh, and N.Z Bear's own blogathon (which was assembled in a matter of days) has officially kicked the crap out of the so-called "official" Blogathon (which was assembled over two years).

For a brief moment, there was a cat in every catcam again...

Just in case you're wondering how, Nardo's also in the corner of the leather seat cam.

HOUSTON, TX (IFOC) - Refugees threatening to relocate to Tennessee if Astrodome isn't immediately refurbished with additional luxury boxes..

Is it just me, or does Donald Sensing incorrectly assume that the folks that stayed behind in New Orleans can read?

Where's a NOLA'n on the subject? What's the literacy rate there? How effective would announcements via paper instead of chopper-borne megaphone be?

Trouble at the Astrodome has begun, but it's not looters from New Orleans.

Nope. It's 100% home-grown Houston idiots in positions of authority. Greg Wythe says:

Watching Ch. 13 news and we have the following conflict:

- there's not enough volunteers to process incoming Katrina refugees.

- volunteers who are showing up at the gate of the Dome to volunteer are being turned away.

This is why I wanted to volunteer through the company. These kinds of beaurocratic screwups don't happen when you do it in a formal group.

I figure there will be ample opportunities to volunteer and nobody with their heads still stuck up their asses by the time I get back in town.

Oh, and by the way, remember that welcome mat we laid out and offered to let twenty-five thousand people walk across it into the Dome? Well, let's check in with Tony G.:

CNN just reported breaking news that the Astrodome has started turning away buses, even though there are only 5 or 6,000 refugees currently inside, and estimates were that it would hold 24,000. Their most recent footage shows a pretty crowded floor of the Dome, but it doesn't look like they've used any of the various upper concourse levels and none of the seats. Aaron Brown indicated this is about to blow up into a big story: there are hundreds of buses headed our way. Why did we promise we could take 24,000 if it can only really hold 6,000?

OK, the newest update is that the fire marshal ordered it to stop accepting new people for safety reasons. I find that curious: if the stadium is fire safe with 60,000 people watching a game, how come it's not with 10 or 20,000? My suspicion is they planned on using all the concourses for cots, but the fire marshal thinks those cots would inhibit evacuation down those same concourses during an emergency. Alternately, it might be a cover excuse once they figured out that, if they filled every nook and cranny with people, it would be a security nightmare: you can monitor people on an open field, but not in the back concourses without an army of guards (certainly a concern after all the rape and assault stories from the SuperDome).

Ah, yes. The fire marshall. Didn't anyone think to ask his opinion before coming up with the 24,000 figure?

We've gone from looking good to an bunch of Eighth Wonder Of The World-sized jackasses.

Fix problem. Lend a hand. Then vote the idiots who screwed this all up out of office.

Chris Doelle is absolutely right. There's a lot of space in town that's being wasted for few-and-far between booked conventions. The George R. Brown and Astrohall are other covered places that can be used.

The Texans could play at Rice Stadium temporarily while the new Reliant Arena is converted.

Another potential shame will be when it is revealed that oil and gas industry corporations often rent furnished apartments in major complexes in town, but they won't offer those up to people to live in.

Or vacant apartments that Mattress Mack would likely fall over himself to furnish.

Or that wretched excess of hotel capacity the tourism wonks keep whining about.

Then there's the perception factor. Will Houston get tarred with the "stingy" label for worrying for the folks already in the Astrodome to the point of limiting the amount of folks it can hold while working hard to find alternative arrangements, or will the story be "we're turning them away and casting them into the night."

It's kinda like having to collect a bunch of water. You start with the bathtub. It's the one folks notice immediately. But then you start using pots, pans, buckets, and even every glass and dish in the house.

The MSM will focus on the tub (The Astrodome). They might even notice the big pots lying around (smaller shelters, churches, etc.). But they won't notice all the families allowing in relatives or even perfect strangers.

UPDATE:
Mayor White realizes there's a problem and solves it.

I guess this is more interesting than his son's football game after all.

I'd like to honor the memory of one of my high school teachers by completing the quote I borrowed from them. the reporter was kind enough to ask my opinion, and I recognize that I often talk quickly and in a rather disjointed fashion when I don't give myself the time to write my thoughts down first.

Laurence Simon, a tech support employee for a local company, has mixed feelings.

"I'm glad that we're putting out a welcome mat. These people have to go somewhere. But I don't know if officials are appreciating the extent of what it's going to take," said Simon.

"You can hold the door open on the elevator for more and more people but, at some point, the elevator gets too full and the cable snaps."

The thought continues with "With a little patience, there's always the next elevator, and don't forget that there's also the stairs."

That means we can't just willy-nilly cram people into the community without factoring in how quickly we can assimilate them. Furthermore, it's going to take a little discipline and patience on the part of the New Orleans visitors for them to help us help them.

The effort also has to have a goal, and that goal apparently is the resettlement and rebuilding of New Orleans. I have already laid out my suggestions on how to keep these New Orleans visitors busy and focused on that long-term goal while getting some benefit for them as well as us.

I know it takes time to plan and execute a relief effort, but it always saddens me that in crises like these, the news vehicles (aka parasites, news-looters) arrive first to sprout up their masts and satellite dishes. As I've said in the past, it takes two hands to control and steady a news camera. It also takes one hand to hold the microphone and then other to hold your IFB in your ear. That leaves none to lend a helping hand.

As for this quote from the article:

About two-thirds of the population of New Orleans and many of the evacuees are black. Some of the e-mails and calls have a racist bent.

Share them, shame them, and show them how they're wrong.

I, for one, don't care what race these people are. They are Americans. They our people in need. They are legal immigrants. They are here due to a disaster that is no fault of their own.

Is it political opportunism when I say that now is the time to get tough with the out of control situation with illegal immigrants because it drains the resources necessary to aid these legal immigrants?

Nope. It's trying to solve the problem by solving the chronic problem nobody's dealt with yet.

From now on, I'm calling them visitors or legal immigrants. Maybe even involuntary tourists?

I've got it. Louisiana Olim, taking the Texas aliyah

I feel that the word "refugee" has been sufficiently poisoned and twisted by the UN, UNRWA, Amnesty International, the PLO, and the Arab League that it's pretty much meaningless at this point.

I'd really like to focus on the positive and praise NZ Bear's Katrina relief efforts, but It looks like NZ Bear's Katrina relief effort blogathon is now really kicking the crap out of the Blogathon.

Also, it appears that the organizers of the Blogathon cannot be bothered to post anything about Katrina on their site. And it appears that a discussion about their difficulties with the Red Cross have been vanished from the archives.

I'd post something on their forums to let folks know they need to do something, but they killed my account when I took them to task for their selective support of participating sites.

I should be content with the fact that we all did our part in helping The Cat Welfare Society of Israel rescue as many pets as they could and are working hard to keep them healthy and get them new homes, but the Blogathon's utter stagnation silence on Katrina instead of rolling up their sleeves once again shows that they apparantly don't give a damn about these New Orleans folks.

Is it because it's a "Red State" disaster? Is it because it's not a Left Coast Cause?

When I last checked, the city was heavy Democrat. Heavy minority. Heavy poor.

Charity should be colorblind, whether it's white-black-brown colorblind or red-blue colorblind.

Two Israellycool podcasts, technology Bytes, Mikeypod on the Bayou, Riding With the Windows Down, the entire archive of IMAO, and a few others.

I used to read. Now I can just close my eyes and listen to podcasts instead of the sounds of whatever the tools mechanics left ratting around the engine or the cargo hold.

The worst thing to bring on an airplane is a functioning ear. Not only do you hear things you don't want to hear, but your balance center is pretty much the FAA's bitch when you're in the air.

Better to listen to podcasts that things that might annoy or frighten me.

Just going out for a stroll...

See you soon. Until then, enjoy Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats.

And if things break between now and then, well, all the better. I do so enjoy fixing things.

I am heading up to Chicago for my grandmother's 90th birthday. Before you shout "WHY ARE YOU BUGGING OUT OF HOUSTON? IS IT THE HORDE OF ANGRY RIFF-RAFF LOOTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS?" I'd like to mention that this has been in the planning for 90 years, give or take a year.

As much as I'd like to stay to defend my home, property, and loved ones against the mad hordes of drug abusers, escaped prisoners, and looters alarmists at the Big Three and cable news networks are warning about participate in local volunteer relief efforts, it is necessary that I go to this thing.

In the meantime:

Comments and Trackbacks have been turned off sitewide. Unless, of course, you are desperate for Texas Hold-em advice and links to herbal versions of popular prescription drugs. In which case... go to someone else's site that doesn't police their server vigilantly for these damn things.

I will leave the catcams on over the weekend. If the system crashes, well, that's the way the catnip crumbles.

I have pre-recorded four podcasted 100 word stories to be futureposted over the next four days. Unless the system blows sky-high, of course.

I will not take my Chad Qualls jersey with me, since I won't have much time for watching baseball and markets outside of Houston are notoriously unreliable when it comes to airing Astros games, even if the local team or teams are facing the Astros that day.

I have also pre-recorded a kittycat post or two for your amusement. They will also be futureposted, unless the system blows sky-high.

There are plenty of other Houston bloggers out there. There are also plenty of other pissed-off and angry psychobloggers out there. And the Blogosphere is replate with catbloggers beyond your wildest dreams. But I will not link them here in this post because that tends to result in someone whining about being left or, or keeping their whiny sentiments bottled up inside until they explode. To avoid those kinds of explosions, please feel free to introduce yourselves to the various publicly-available blog directory services.

I am disappointed in the many A-list, high-traffic bloggers who fail to inform their readers that there are a lot of Houston weblogs covering the evacuation from the SuperDome and assimilation of New Orleans refugees into our city. If you're getting your news on this subject from the New York Times and the Washington Post instead of the Houston Chronicle, Lone Star Times, BlogHouston, and others that are sure to grow in number as the situation unfolds.

The ones that actually are linking (which are few) are not only doing their readers a great service, but they are heeding the Mantras of Jarvis in GOING LOCAL and NEWS IS A CONVERSATION and EMBRACING THE COMPETITION FOR AA WIDER PERSPECTIVE.

There will likely be a few Domebloggers in the coming days. But I'd be more interested in the thoughts and observations of someone that actually overcomes the shock of being "domed" twice and ventures out into our city to measure how we're really welcoming them.

Enjoy the silence for now. See you Monday night.

Finally home.

I'm shocked not to see Sylvester Turner going around with a ton of voter registration forms trying to get these emergency visitors to our fair city signed up to stuff the ballot box based solely on racial lines participate in our local elections like any other welcome resident.

*shrug* It's a holiday. That race-baiting corrupt bastard's slicker than goose shit and should make the rounds soon enough.

Surprised to see the city still standing. Not surprised to see that Austin, as a whole, is glad to open everybody else's doors but their own. Still looking for that announcement that shelters

Typical liberal town: generous with the vast resources of others.

So, where does one buy checkers, chess, and backgammon sets for our visitors? I'd like to provide challenging strategic games for the kids so that they can grow up to be smart, strategy-oriented, and completely unlike that whiny fucknut Ray Nagin who thinks that you shriek and blame the president in an emergency instead of keeping your shit together and rolling out an action plan.

The man and his cronies spent hundreds of millions on city beautification projects and incentives to lure in casinos and a tram to revive the Canal Street Line.

Well, Ray, the tourist trade is just booming. Heck, we've got several hundred thousand in Texas right now.

I wonder if they're buying anything. Besides your line of bullshit, that is.

Looks like bloggers have raised nearly a million bucks for various Katrina-related charities.

I could have sworn I sent Tom Paine my Full Of Crap Report for Shire Network News before I left for my grandmother's birthday in Chicago (I have yet to get down to the Astrodome, since I feel that I'd be more of a hindrance than a help as an individual at this point. My contributions have been monetary, a few spare items like a backgammon board kids can play with, and my prompting A-list bloggers to increase awareness whene Glenn Reynolds has blithely ignored Houston's Herculean efforts) . I was trying to do an imitation of Roger Rosenblatt and failed miserably. I suppose my MP3 file was attacked by a shark or something...

The Heart the the City: 1.1MB. There's even an attempt at humor in there.

I'd like to thank Michelle Malkin for highlighting the efforts of Texas to aid her new temporary guests, legal aliens, disaster tourists, or whatever you call these folks.

I thought he'd change his tune over the weekend, but Glenn Reynolds continues to play from John Cage's sheet music when it comes to Texas' efforts.

Instead of adding to the list of things I call him already, I'll just accentuate the positive and bow towards Charles Johnson five times a day.

I'd like to thank Mog for posting my hastily-tapped SMS-based 100 word story I wrote while Geraldo Rivera blighted the television screen in my hotel room.

The fact that so many news crews went into the disaster area with more makeup and broadcast equipment than relief supples made me completely sick to my stomach. Why weren't the looters shooting at them instead of the helicopters or the Army Corps of Engineers?

As the old joke about the shark not eating the lawyer goes, professional courtesy, I suppose.

My earliest distinct memory is going around this corner at South Park Elementary and looking in the window at Mrs. Rettig's kindergarden class:

That was one year before I was entered into preschool. I guess that's a late 2, early 3 memory.

I went to a school named South Park, and I lived in the area John Hughes lovingly dubbed Shermer, Illinois.

Want to know something even odder?

Even though I pre-loaded a slate of Les Nessman punts in the Podcasting site, Michele was nice enough to SMS me the themes so I could write up quick stories to backfill the themes I missed on 100 Words Or Less Nessman.

I have a spiral bound notebook full of stories from the weekend. I am busy transcribing them right now.

When they're up, they'll be on both the Les Nessman site and the podcasting site.

If my voice holds out, that is.

Ira's of Northbrook was founded in 1973. My family came to Deerfield right around then.

If you're from Chicago and you've written me more than once, I've probably asked you if you've gone to Ira's.

Its been almost twenty-five years since I last had an Ira's hot dog.

Same stools. Same color scheme. A bit longer steam table for preparation.

Screw my diet. Celery salt fights cancer cells. I read it somewhere.

I used to have just pickles, relish, and mustard. Now, I do the Chicago Dog works.

Not that I eat hot dogs, remember. This is just a nightmare of my doctor's imagination. I was trying to eat the bun and this tube of cooked meat got in the way. Who knew?

And, yes, this was the reason why today's theme on 100 Words Or les Nessman was Hot Dogs. I SMS'ed it to Michele when Andy flaked, and I've written two stories which I'll have to pick one for today.

What childhood restaurants or foods haunt you to this day? Which ones do you remember from way back when that you've had the chance to eat as an adult? How was it?

First night back, and Qualls gets smacked around a bit, despite a desperate Oogah Boogah Dance.

I missed Roger getting screwed by the relief crew and Biggio getting plunked again.

I also missed Qualls picking up a fourth win after pitching 2 not-so-great innings in a snore-fest. At least that prick Tavares got rocked.

UPDATE:
Richard Justice praises Big Q for turning things around in the second half of the season.

The man needs a nickname. Why not Big Q? Know of any other Q's in the league bigger than 6'5"?

The dumbest of the overnight dumbasses was out sick. I guess this means no major-league screwups to clean up this morning.

RTW2 is gone. Hopefully, he will find happiness in his new position elsewhere, and I'm glad he didn't swallow the cock-and-bull a second time. He was given a counter offer from here the first time, then the raise he was promise wasn't delivered.

So the ride to work is a tad longer. More time to read and listen to things without interruption. Plus, the air conditioning is always on. On a down note, METRO's 3756 bus assigned to the goofball 102 route had half a door messed up. Some other METRO bus driver hopped on and acted as doorman for a few stops before hopping off.

I find that profoundly silly, but at least the METRO webmasters realized that shutting the site down for the weekend would be an idiotic move considering our recent influx of tourist-guests from New Orleans.

Does METRO have a squad of routemeisters down there helping people figure out how to get around town, or is the quarrantine/gulag still in effect?

UPDATE:
Had the same bus home as I did going to work.

Door got fixed.

Amazing.

John Leo rounds up the criminally negligent coverage of Mama Moonbat Cindy Sheehan in Crawford.

As shoddy as the coverage was, they should get an award for editing. Why? She stuck her foot in her mouth so many times, it's amazing how the major news networks managed to edit together anything that didn't have her insane leftist anti-American prattle infecting it.

That brings up another odd subject...

Some folks have asked me if the lack of a 100 word story last week on Mikeypod had anything to do with the exuberant interview of the activist he interviewed on Cindy and the one this past weekend for the Save Some Killer Or Another thing.

Nope. Not in the slightest. In fact, I found those interview fascinating, and Mikey's newfound outspoken activism is rather refreshing compared to a lot of the bland and passive accounts of political involvement from both extremes of the political spectrum. And it's firsthand, unedited, and honest feelings - not spliced and covered up and made palatable for the public by some MSM jackass reporter exiled to Crawford for a month.

I hope he keeps this going as part of the arts/social/culture mix of things. This is a part of Houston people need to know - Los Angeles and its Hollywood protestors aren't the only ones on the planet.

I am getting a better understanding of it all, and it's not the "know your enemy" kind of thing. I may not agree, but perhaps there's non-foaming individuals among the sea of radicalism that are worthy of respect, and any attempt to broad-brush paint the entire lineup as WACKO ends up being ignorant in and of itself.

The banner may not be the best to fly, but it's the closest one available among all the options.

Whether or not you think such causes are enlightened or wrongheaded or passionate or ignorant or valiant or noble any other term you can throw out about misinformed participation in a process, hey - don't suppress the guy's enthusiasm and passion. Maybe he'll start to question some of the things he's seeing and turn against it, or perhaps he'll dig deep enough into it, assemble some kind of Greater Truth from it, and then enlighten right-wing nutcases such as myself.

(Who knows? Maybe he might convince me that those Queers for Palestine folks aren't all worthy of a rubber room and a fashion statement that straps in the back.)

A person's views are an assemblage of the number of inconsistencies and paradoxes they are able to maintain. The more complex the world-view, the less stable the individual. But, in the same regard, the more entertaining they become.

Fire up the footlights, Blogosphere. I've got my cane and my top hat, ready to tread the stage once again to spin these many disparate plates for all eternity for your amusement.

As a teacher once told me of politics: "In the end, we'll all meet in the center. I'll bring bread. You bring the brie."

About the missing story? well, he gave me the word "pair" and I didn't come up with anything until I was already out of town. I'll record it and send it over to him.

Is that my color or what?

Is there a Nicorette version for pot smokers?