Harry Shearer on New Orleans

Pardon the George Bush 41-inspired wordplay, but what can one think of the NBA's attempt to get a P.R. handle on the refereeing scandal in the league?

That would be the tabloid, but not entirely inaccurate, version of the New Orleans story to date.

The decorations on the houses in my neighborhood have gone from green and red to purple, green and gold, the annual signal of the transition from "your" holiday season to "ours".

There are stories of hope and progress, and of delay and betrayal in New Orleans. None of them worthy of a mention as candidates left and right outlined their visions for the future last night.

How does a hurricane wreck a sewer system? It doesn't. What happened to St. Bernard Parish is what happened to New Orleans, the failure of a system of levees and floodwalls.

With the supply of rental housing so depleted, rents have risen, and, Brad Pitt's best efforts notwithstanding, affordable housing in New Orleans is being destroyed, not rebuilt.

One reason people know so little about the damage to New Orleans is that TV news has abandoned one of its few honorable journalistic rules.

The new gates and levee repairs by the US Army Corps of Engineers are, it now appears, giving almost no additional protection.

Superblocks may look nice on a clean slate, but the New Orleanians who ache to return want to come back to someplace that looks, and feels, like the city they have missed for so long.