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John Lapoint of Packgen in Auburn, Maine, says he’s got plenty of floating oil containment boom and can make lots more on short notice. There’s just one problem: no one will buy it from him. He’s already had a representative from BP visit his factory and inspect his product. The governor of Maine, John Baldacci, visited the facility and made a video plea to no one in particular to close the deal. Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins wrote a letter on May 21 to the secretary of the Interior, the administrator of NOAA, and the commandant of the...

…you have to more or less suspend disbelief not to recognize that. But based on various agendas, it seems like that’s what’s going on. Beyond the reactions of left-wing journals, when those sources have reacted to this story at all, we notice that Allahpundit at HotAir.com and Michelle Malkin have both gone out of their way to disparage the idea that the attack had to do with politics. The attack was political. But, and I think I’ve been clear on this and hopefully in this post I’ll be even clearer, while it was political it doesn’t appear that it was...

A New Orleans federal judge has sentenced a Slidell man in connection with a case where the man illegally wore a Navy uniform, complete with medals, at a wedding, according to U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.

Lee Celano for The New York TimesDylan Langlois, center, and Kasandra Larsen said goodbye to a friend as they prepared to move out of New NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 15 — After nearly a decade in the city of their dreams, Kasandra Larsen and her fiancé, Dylan Langlois, climbed into a rented moving truck on Marais Street last Sunday, pointed it toward New Hampshire, and said goodbye. Not because of some great betrayal — they had, after all, come back after losing everything in Hurricane Katrina — but a series of escalating indignities: the attempted carjacking of a pregnant friend;...

WNBC.com reports: NEW YORK -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, confronted with accusations he's taking too long to rebuild his city after Hurricane Katrina, takes a swipe at New York's redevelopment of the World Trade Center site on a television news show. Nagin, weaving through the wreckage in the devastated Ninth Ward neighborhood, claimed much of the debris was removed from public property, but when a "60 Minutes" correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars on the streets, Nagin shot back, "You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be...

Are you sick of race hustlers pimping the race card? I am. Maybe we should begin to ask ourselves why the race card continues to be played. Is it because it works? Is the concept of guilt, even guilt that should not be shouldered by a new generation, so strong that it overwhelms logical thinking? New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city's ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

NEW ORLEANS -- Mayor Ray Nagin unveiled a new evacuation strategy for New Orleans on Tuesday that relies more on buses and trains and eliminates the Superdome and Convention Center as shelters. "There will be no shelter of last resort in the event of a major hurricane coming our way," Nagin declared. The mayor, facing a runoff election May 20, has been widely criticized for failing to get the city's most vulnerable residents out of town as Hurricane Katrina approached. The Superdome and Morial Convention Center became a scene of misery for days after the Aug. 29 hurricane as thousands...

Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay. Some submerged to their roofs in the black flood waters, the yellow school buses were widely photographed in the days after Hurricane Katrina and have become an icon of the city's devastated school system. School officials acknowledge the sale of the buses on the Internet auction site may puzzle some people used to more traditional school fundraisers like bake sales. "There's no shame in it. Not one bit," said school board president Phyllis Landrieu. "This is...

Today’s Herald-Tribune, southwest Florida’s leading newspaper, published a letter to the editor demanding the impeachment of President Bush “because he lied about knowing the levies would be breached”. Perhaps this is a rant of another leftist kook who has given up on ‘Bush lied’ about WMD, but more likely it was the direct result of the lie that the Associated Press told earlier this week that, in fact, the President WAS told that the levies would be breached. It is little consolation that, under fire from hundreds of bloggers, AP has issued a retraction of its original story.

Sources close to the Lieutenant Governor reveal to The Louisiana Weekly that Mitch Landrieu will run for Mayor of New Orleans in the April 22 primary. With qualifying less than a month away, almost ever political observer views Landrieu as the immediate front runner, as problems continue to mount for incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin. Landrieu's decision is only the latest development in what is becoming the most eventful election year in recent memory. In a normal election cycle, 2006 would be a somewhat dull election year. But no more. Voters will cast ballots in possibly three statewide elections, a series...

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Mayor Ray Nagin's Martin Luther King Day remark that New Orleans will once again be a "chocolate city" has spawned a cottage industry of T-shirts. There are the "Chocolate City Police" shirts, which say "I'm not bitter" on the back, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. And then there are T-shirts that feature Nagin as Willy Wonka. Dolph Federico, who peddles the Willy Nagin shirts at imnotchocolate.com, said he has received orders from as far away as Norway and Malaysia. "No hard feelings, Ray," he said. "We're just trying to have fun." The mayor's statement,...

I just couldn’t understand why Nagin would make such a comment about New Orleans. I mean the statement is not only racist, it’s also stupid and while Nagin is not a genius, he is not that stupid. Therefore, the statement has to have some meaning behind it. From my perspective, it’s simply desperation from elite well-connected blacks who, as typical Democrats, have prospered by taking their suffering inner city black constituency for granted. As more and more people of Mexican decent enter into the city, they feel they’re losing control. In short, the “chocolate” comment was made by hungry wolves...

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Louisiana survived Earl Long's trip to the nuthouse, so maybe New Orleans can survive Mayor Ray Nagin's apparent descent into lunacy. But Long managed to put his eccentric episodes behind him and remained a political force, going on to win a congressional election just before he died. Nagin may not be so lucky. It will be hard to recover from his Martin Luther King Day tirade, because it was not just insane. It was stupid. The mayoralty is there for any credible candidate who wants it, because Nagin just threw away the white vote that got him into office in...

Just wanted to share a number of photoshops I was inspired to create and share in my blog posts so far this week. (Not enough hours in the day to get Gore, Belafonte and the rest) From:NOLA Mayor Nagin Wants A Chocolate New Orleans From:Mayor Nagin's New Orleans Chocolate Factory Explained... From:Mayor Nagin's New Orleans Chocolate Factory Explained... Mayor "Buses" Nagin: ...That is why Nesquik will be the official sponsor of New Orleans.President Bush: And they call me stupid?! Seriously, who is this guy? From: and Hillary Clinton Tubman Lets Loose on Congressional Plantation. 'Wade in the Water' Hill.

In a further clarification of yesterday’s remarks that a rebuilt New Orleans would be a “chocolate” city, Mayor Ray Nagin today said he’s planning to recruit Hershey Foods to establish a candy manufacturing plant in the hurricane-ravaged region. The Democrat mayor’s latest clarification builds on yesterday’s explanation that his remarks are not racist because chocolate is made with dark chocolate and white milk forming “a delicious drink.” “We’re in the very, very early stages of discussions with Hershey,” Mr. Nagin said, “It’s still in the pre-meeting, pre-phone call stage. But that’s what this chocolate city concept is all about. It’s...

NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting. "Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day. "Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The City Council took action Thursday that could delay FEMA trailers for hurricane evacuees, citing plans to place the makeshift homes in some locations unsuitable for such housing. The council voted unanimously to override Mayor Ray Nagin's veto of an ordinance giving council members the power to block temporary trailer parks in their districts. Nagin said before Thursday's council meeting the ordinance could delay trailers for evacuees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But council members said FEMA wanted to establish trailer parks in historic areas and playgrounds unsuitable for such development. "There are alternative sites...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senator leading an investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina questioned whether post-storm requests by New Orleans city officials for golf carts, air conditioners and travel assistance were necessary. Documents released Thursday by Republican aides to a Senate committee show that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration also asked for hundreds of laptop computers, patrol cars, handcuffs and guns for police. The flooded city was ransacked by some looting after the Aug. 29 storm, and many of its police cars and other vehicles and equipment were destroyed. "They struck me as not the typical request,"...

In a brewing dispute over next year's Mardi Gras, the hotel and tourism industry on Wednesday spoke out against Mayor Ray Nagin's suggestion that hotels donate a portion of their profits from Mardi Gras to help refugees return to the city. Darrius Gray, the head of the Greater New Orleans & Lodging Association, belittled Nagin's suggestion, saying hotels have been losing money since Hurricane Katrina and are in no position to hand out money. "Profits are hard to come by these days to tell you the truth," Gray said. Nagin made his comments on Tuesday after a news conference, but...