The NBA Gets It, The Pols Don't
Wasn't it a few years ago when, after New York had experienced 9/11, one of our major political parties decided to hold its 2004 convention in the Big Apple as a sign of national solidarity with the wounded city? Flash forward to today, when the Presidential Debate Commission informs New Orleans it isn't "ready" to hold a Presidential Debate next year. Yes, the two parties have already decided the city doesn't deserve a convention, but that may just be down to how much money the winning cities ponied up for the privilege. But not ready? The city has just hosted two back-to-back major conventions, it will host two major college football games within a week, including the BCS championship and, oh, by the way, apropos of controlled chaos, the city has easily and safely hosted two Mardi Gras events since Katrina. David Stern, president of the NBA, long since knew the importance of supporting the city's recovery, engineering the league's decision to hold next February's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans. What is it the Presidential Debate Commission, and its associated pols, don't get about expressing solidarity with a city critically wounded by the malfeasance of the federal government? If the Army Corps of Engineers were headed by Bin Laden, would that make New Orleans "ready"?
UPDATE (11-21): Check out Lolis Elie's column on the debate snub in today's Times-Picayune.
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This is indicative of how far politics is removed from people.
P.S. Impeaching George is old news, time to look ahead to the next asshole in charge.
If y'all wanted George impeached, you should have started that 4 years ago.
A bunch of New Orleans locals figured it out. No politician or party wants their F*@k Up shown on T.V. They are very aware of the fact that the 'fill in shots' for the debates will be of the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East and Chalmette. Believe me, if the political parties offered a "NONE OF THE ABOVE" on the ballot, the good people of New Orleans would vote just that way!
As a Person who questions everything i am Questioning whether Rebuilding New Orleans is a viable solution. a presidential debate will no doubt be held somewhere. but, they are not addressing the issues anyway. The whole country lost something when Katrina made land fall. I feel that the government failed in helping those in need. but, it failed the rest of the country by, rebuilding in a place that will be inundated again. all the pumps in the country are not going to help. Are our taxes going to soothe a wound,or pour salt in one? New Orleans was/is a beautiful city. but, is it a pork project or just a dead bird to hang around our neck????
HARRY RESPONDS: You keep asking the same question, with the same answer already firmly in mind. If you're so curious, first, read up on what really happened. It wasn't a hurricane. Read "The Storm" and "Path of Destruction". Second, come down and see the place for yourself. Decide whether sitting thousands of miles away and casting judgment on the lives of a million people is a smart idea.
I just read Mr Elie's column and while I agree that New Orleans would have been a good choice for a debate site for many reasons, I doubt that the national attention would have been usefully drawn to the plight of the city.
The kabuki theater "debates" (and I use that word reservedly, since they are more "joint news conferences" than debates in the forensic sense of the word) are all about clever "zingers" and spin and have virtually no relevance. I'm not sure where discussion of New Orleans fits in to that picture.[*]
Ratings have consistently declined, with the exception of 1992, when the inclusion of third party candidate Ross Perot actually made them momentarily interesting, if only from a comedic point of view. The Debate Commission won't make that mistake again.
The Dem's saturation schedule of debates this year will no doubt exacerbate this trend (oh, no, not *another* debate).
http://www.museum.tv/debateweb/html/equalizer/stats_tvratings.htm
Barring some unexpected event, I would not be surprised to see ratings dipping below 20 this year.
If the siting of the debates *is* about symbolism, I find Mr Elie's dismissal of Oxford, Mississippi, interesting. James Meridith might take issue with the statement "... [T]he great issues of the nation do not express themselves as forcefully on the streets of Oxford...".
If anything, I find the fact that all the sites, with the exception of Saint Louis, are to the *east* of the Mississippi River (and Saint Louis is so close to the river as to be indistinguishible) to be most curious.
One point on which I do agree with Mr Elie: "... [W]e probably never will know why the commission chose as it did. In this great democracy of ours, such important matters are kept secret."
That is reprehensible.
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[*] Not that I agree with shoving the subject under the rug.
HARRY RESPONDS:So, judging by your James Meredith standard for relevancy, New Orleans will be a suitable site for a debate in about forty years?
Has anyone ever addressed the proposal--maybe it wasn't the best. In the past, the city and its event organizers have been known to submit substandard proposals for everything from government money to events and conventions. The city can't always rely on the "feel sorry for us" or "what a charming city" factor all the time. Because, maybe the proposal just wasn't good--and you know, maybe just didn't want to have the debate in New Orleans.
If something isn't done to restore the wetlands and the levy system isn't brought up to quality standard there won't be much of anything to agonize about.The problem is by the pols sticking their heads in the sand a critical window of opportunity is dissipating.All the ineptitude, all the greed ,all the great music and one of a kind culture will be lost in one great toxic flush.The Bush administration-while twice screwing the city with this moral affront, will have sent a culture in need of improvement and support to a watery tomb through the toilet of hypocrisy.Long live the king.
Harry, I have no problem with you calling bullshit on the debate commission -- it clearly is, and I think it's fairly obvious why. Neither party wants to admit that they fucked up in NOLA (more a GOP issue), neither party has a strong and effective plan to deal with NOLA's challenges (more a Dem issue), and so neither party wants to stage a media event there. It's as awful as it is unsurprising, but such is the way of things these days.
All that being said, I feel compelled to make a clarification: Gov. Ryan is the only former governor of IL in recent years to be sent to prison for corruption, not the last three governors, as you noted. Jim Edgar, Jim Thompson and our current gov, G-Rod, remain at large. They all may be corrupt, but only Ryan got caught (and even then he really only got caught being corrupt in his capacity as Secretary of State, not as Governor; make of that what you will).
HARRY RESPONDS: FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS:
"Ryan was the third former Illinois governor in the past three decades to be convicted of federal felonies. Otto Kerner was found guilty in a racing-stock scandal; Dan Walker was convicted of corruption involving bank loans."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002936731_ryan18.html
Why is it that neither party will hold their convention in New Orleans? Could it be that the reminders of their incompetence will still be there looking at them right in the face each day that they are their? Could it be that N.O. is too Democratic and will be overwhelmed by protesters asking them questions they cannot answer? Could it be that they don't want to answer questions from the press (if there is still such a thing) about why N.O. is still recovering and people are still displaced? Could it be the politicians think that if you ignore a problem it will just go away? I think all of the above.
When some want to KNOW if the dems would do better they just need to look to the 8 years of Bill Clinton. If the repubs didn't make such a big deal out of his personal-affair it would have been even better.
The repubs need their priorities put in some kind of sensible order and figure out why most of the corruption and perverts are within their party.
Perhaps, the repubs should hold their convention in Baghdad since that has been this administrations first priority over N. Orleans.
Harry, Great comment. I could not agree more.
I just got back from five days in New Orleans, where I took part in the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. It was wonderful. Every local person I met was friendly and helpful. I felt safe walking around day and night, and I felt welcomed. I also heard some great blues.
By the way, I love Le Show, listen every week.
Kind regards, Mark Baker
Here's the thing: The GOP is all about sticking a big fat thumb in your eye. It's what mobilizes support from the Base. As long as the right thumb is going into the proper eye, then you're their boy, baby -- no matter how many divorces you've had or how many times you've worn an evening gown. Proper eyes include, but are not limited to, liberals, Democrats, gays, feminists, people who think for themselves, various ethnic minorities, anyone who actually believes in government -- you get the idea.
Call it the "Moe Howard theory of governing."
The 2004 GOP convention was a thumb in New York's eye. (So, for that matter, was 9/11.) And New York is full of liberals, Jews and homos -- so its eye is particularly thumbworthy.
New Orleans, on the other hand, has already had a big fat thumb stuck in its eye. As an added plus, thumbs also went in the eyes of many of the groups noted above at the same time. Thus, New Orleans has served its purpose, and merits no further consideration or concern.
So you see, there is really no discrepancy between the treatment of the two venues.
It's because the Do-Nothing-crats don't want to get anywhere near N.O. because their hands are all over that cookie jar of money being doled out to the casinos and other carpet-bagging corporate fixers in the name of "promoting business".
They seem to ignore the idea that Customers are needed to make all that money work. And from what I understand, the Customers are being skipped over and well, actively POISONED by FEMA.
Maybe the REAL game is to depopulate that area of "po' folks" and repopulate it with ocean-view condos.
Ya think?
HARRY RESPONDS: If that's their plan for New Orleans, they may have to wait about a hundred years for oceanfront property to be part of the city.
the two wings of the party of property(who control the so called "debates") don't care to be reminded of their failure to make NOLA whole after the liar-in-chief stood there and said he would.
they also don't care to have we proles reminded of that same failure.
even if NOLA were to blame for the failure of the levees(which it is not), that is still no reason to leave it to rot while we persue useless wars on "terrorism" and "drugs".
perhaps the third party presidential candidates should hold their own debate in NOLA to remind everyone.
"Defend America Defund the Wars"
From the article: "New Orleans was turned down as a site for one of the 2008 presidential debates because organizers said it had not sufficiently recovered from Hurricane Katrina to handle such an important event, the woman spearheading the effort said Monday."
Note all the quotes in the article from a person directly involved in lobbying the organizers and with a direct interest in the outcome.
I'd like to see more detail on the reasoning of the organizers, including statements therefrom, before passing any judgement.
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Posted November 20, 2007 | 10:16 AM (EST)