We have a three-hour window, which of course means that he'll be here 1 minute before 11.

Heh. Yeah, I know how that goes.

Cheerful article about New Orleans evacuees in the NYT this morning:

In many ways, evacuees have become the region’s new pariahs, shunned by towns and parishes who have erected a number of legal barriers to keep them out.

At least five jurisdictions in Louisiana and Mississippi — St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, and Jefferson parishes in Louisiana and Pascagoula and Ocean Springs in Mississippi — have begun revoking permits for trailers or allowing their zoning exemptions to expire. Those moves affect families still living in 7,400 trailers across the Gulf Coast, according to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a group based in Washington that has sued to stop the evictions.

Joseph D. Rich, project director for fair housing and community development with the committee, said some jurisdictions have complained about crime in the trailer parks, prompting FEMA to provide extra security. Mr. Rich said he believed there was another motivation for banning trailers.

“There are severe racial overtones to these actions,” he said. “Because there’s all this concern that black and low-income people will be coming into your neighborhood.”

Some local jurisdictions are also fighting to prevent the construction or repair of rental units. In Jefferson Parish, the suburb just west of New Orleans, officials blocked a 200-unit complex for the elderly in Terrytown, citing concerns that it would increase crime, and they are fighting a second complex for the elderly in Marrero. Westwego, also in Jefferson Parish, has placed a moratorium on multifamily buildings.

“You have some people that just lack any degree of civilization,” said Chris Roberts, a Jefferson Parish councilman who has fought to remove FEMA trailers and block subsidized housing developments. “I think low-income housing which is not properly run invites those people.”

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“You have some people that just lack any degree of civilization,” said Chris Roberts, a Jefferson Parish councilman who has fought to remove FEMA trailers and block subsidized housing developments. “I think low-income housing which is not properly run invites those people.”

...and the other people that just lack any degree of civilization run for Parish council.

Jefferson Parish's slogan: "We elected David Duke! And David Vitter, that guy who's been sleeping with whores!"

I remember once while I was in college, a few women had been raped (I think -- there had been some crime commited, and I think that was it), and the best description they had of the suspect was "youngish black man." The Jefferson Parish sherriff announced that police would be stopping any young black man they saw driving through Jefferson Parish, since they needed to find the rapist, and there wasn't any reason that black men should be driving in Jefferson Parish, anyway. (I may have some of these details wrong. It was a while ago.)

Akira the Akita with the boy's name.

One of the reasons that people couldn't LEAVE the Superdome was that the undrowned city across the nearby bridge set up a police barricade and swore they'd shoot anybody who tried to WALK out over that route.

One of the reasons that people couldn't LEAVE the Superdome was that the undrowned city across the nearby bridge set up a police barricade and swore they'd shoot anybody who tried to WALK out over that route.

Humanity...beasts with too much brains and too little heart.

One of the reasons that people couldn't LEAVE the Superdome was that the undrowned city across the nearby bridge set up a police barricade and swore they'd shoot anybody who tried to WALK out over that route.

Ah, the innate goodness of humans. Warms my heart.

I heard something on the news that the public housing in NO is pretty much all right ... but they won't let people move back in.