--He says he’s a machine player rather than a table gamer because he doesn’t like to talk politics. That’s a bit of a stretch, because nobody feeds that many twenties or coins into a video poker or slot machine.
--assuming that this guy isn’t simply the biggest loser on the planet, if he lost $8 million, he had to be giving the casinos a lot more action than that. You can up up as much as three to five times what you leave with at the end of the night. For him to lose $8 million, he was giving the casios action to the tune of over $20 million. That’s not a hobby or a weekend fling, that’s an obsession, possibly a gambling addiction.
--I’d like to know how the Washington Monthly found out about this. Casinos don’t ever give out much info on their high-rollers. The last thing Bellagio wants to do is to have the Rio learn details about their best people.
--Did Mr. Virtue manage to not partake in any of the other non-virtuous things a casino would offer a player of his caliber?
<sigh> I guess I’ll stick to the dollar table at the Horshoe.
1050 CDT
I love baeball season...
...not merely because I’m a glutton for punishment (tr., Cubs fan), but because my son plays playground ball. Being a soccer coach and referee, I’m excused from coaching responsibilities on the diamond. (Which is a good thing, mind you, because i’m a lefty who sucks at it.) That means I get to hang out and enjoy the fresh air, green grass, and moms in shorts. :-)
While others have certainly said this before, basball is far from dead, in spite of the best efforts of the players and owners in MLB to kill it. Girard Playground in Metairie has five baseball diamonds. By 9am, three had games going and the other two had two or three teams practicing. Lots of energy all around, it’s fun to watch.
Today I walked around the playground, my nose stuck in a book. I’m reading Ornament of the World, by María Rosa Monocal. It’s subtitled “How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain.” Why? Because I’m one of those folks that wonders where humanity would be now had Christianity not dominated Western Europe.
I’m becoming an SMS junkie...
While out at the playground, I was able to say hi to friends in Shreveport, LA, and Nevan in Co. Meath, Ireland. SMS me if you read the blog, +15043395087.
2-May-2002
2237 CDT
Why does Da Paper have such a red-ass for Judge Benge?
This guy Phillip Demma, who is mixed up in the Bodenheimer case, was granted bail today pending sentencing. One would assume this is part of his plea-bargain, since the U.S. Attorney’s office didn’t object.
But when you go to page 2 of the Metro section, there you read once again that the U.S. Attorney is looking at Judge Joan Benge as part of the on-going investigation into corruption at the 24th Judicial District (Parish of Jefferson). Benge’s name comes up because of a lawsuit Demma had before her where she awarded him a judgement of $4,200. The DoJ (remember, this is the same DoJ that brought you the Canal Street Brothel) claim they have recordings of Benge on the phone with (ex-24th JDC Judge) Ronnie Bodenheimer, who is asking her to help out Demma. Since Demma got a favorable verdict from Benge, everybody thinks something is fishy, and da Paper keeps harping on this.
Here’s where I have problems with this:
1. The judgement Benge made for Demma was for $4,200. If Demma’s lawyer only took the customary 25-33% contingency, he netted around three grand for his trouble. Is that all Bodenheimer’s “good word” was worth? Seems to me that, if two 24th JDC judges were going to conspire to fix a lawsuit, there would be a bit more “pro quo” to go with the “quid.”
2. In spite of Bodenheimer putting his two cents’ worth into the case, Demma was dissatisfied with the judgement to the point his attorneys are appealing it. The losing party isn’t appealing the verdict, so it looks like they have accepted this and moved on. Hell, a $4,200 judgement against even an individual isn’t all that bad. No doubt the defense shut their mouths and are happy with this. Seems to me that I would be looking at Benge more if Bodenheimer had been calling on behalf of the defendant, not the plaintiff. Da Paper mentioned that the judgement was being appealed by Demma in the first article naming Benge as the subject of the brothel-gang’s investigation, but somehow that slipped their minds in today’s article.
3. Remember, Bodenheimer called Benge. Of course she was going to take his call. Not only was ol’ Ronnie a brother judge, but he was also a colleague from back when both Bodenheimer and Benge were assistant District Attorneys for Jefferson Parish. So, this guy calls you up and starts putting in a good word for a plaintiff before you. You’re thinking, “is he out of his fucking mind?” What you’re not thinking is “Is my phone tapped by the brothel boys?” So, she listens, hangs up, and gives this guy a judgement that pisses off him and his lawyers enough that they appeal. Doesn’t sound like there was much collusion there.
4. Nobody knew Bodenheimer was nuts. Well, maybe they did, but nobody admitted it, that’s for sure. Who would have thought a former prosecutor who now is a tough-on-crime, give-’em-the-needle judge was involved in a scheme to plant drugs on an enemy?
So, what I don’t get is why da Paper is so hot to damn Benge. Is someone there sucking up to the U.S. Attorney’s office? Benge is no liberal wacko judge. She ran as a Republican tough-on-crime ex-prosecutor. Nobody is claiming that she’s involved in anything other than taking a call from Bodenheimer concerning Demma.
(Full disclosure: My kid goes to school with Benge’s kid, and we gave her campaign $100.)
2052 CDT
Reading James Gill’s column...
In Da Paper (in the bathroom, of course). He makes a comment about how, by the time the Louisiana GOP get their act together on patronage, we’ll have a Democratic presidency. It started me to thinking, who is the closest Republican to Bushies?
John Breaux.
After all, Breaux was 41’s tennis buddy in the early 80s when he was veep. Other than that, the Louisiana GOP is either Kooky Kristian Krazies or Dems-turned-Republican in 81-82 under St. Ronald of California. The one voice the Bush people listen to about Louisiana is Breaux, but the senator obviously doesn’t get to dole out GOP patronage.
This is a far cry from the situation that existed under our last elected President. Rep. Bill Jefferson was Clinton’s point man for appointments, which is how Eddie Jordan got his big break.
I’m gonna go watch the Hornets...
1707 CDT
All this liberal carping about Chris Matthews...
...and how he sucked up so much to the pResident last night. Thing is, he did it on Olberman’s show on MSNBC. Earth to Liberal Kindred Spirits: NOBODY WATCHES MSNBC. Remember the thing about a tree falling on a desert island with nobody around?
1430 CDT
I’m sitting at CC’s in Old Metry
...being distraced by a very cute asian girl studying some sort of college-level material. Is the world going to hell in a handbasket? Is the blogosphere choked with reaction to the pResident’s speech? Who cares, it’s Friday in New Orleans... :-)
Soft-shell crab po-boy...
along with some boiled crawfish and shrimp was lunch today. Met my friend Steve at the Galley. These are the folks who have the soft-shell crab po-boy booth at Da Fest, but I don’t like mass-produced po-boys, so I don’t get it out there.
The Legislature will never vote for it...
...but old people should be required to take a driving test every year to renew their licenses. Of course, the AARP will scream bloody murder, but it would make the world a safer place. Also, people over 60 or so who commit vehicular homicide should be required to serve the year in prison, just like you our I would. Perhaps if some old person who kills someone would actually die in prison, it would make the rest of them realize that they just can’t drive anyway the hell they want to, withtheir minimum-liability (if that much) insurance and a screw-the-world attitude.
Gee, you’d think I was almost killed this morning by some miserable old woman on Veterans or something. Still, I can remember, back in the late 80s or early 90s when a 20-something guy on a motorcycle, minding his own business and going down Veterans, was killed by an old woman who pulled out in to traffic without looking from a drugstore parking lot. She had minimum insurance, so his family got $20,000 for his life. She got a skate from the criminal justice system (the old “prison would be a death sentence” argument). Let’s let some of these old women die in prison and see if it makes our streets safer.
1003 CDT
Tunes this morning...
Jackson Browne, Take it Easy, Our Lady of the Well Garbage, Androgyny, When I Grow Up John Mayer, No Such Thing Grand Funk Railroad, Feelin’ Allright, Footstompin’ Music, Locomotion, Walk Like A Man Eminem, Lose Yourself 10,000 Maniacs, Like the Weather Natalie Merchant, Jealousy.
0914 CDT
Spent most of yesterday writing...
...and scanning photos, trying to clear the backlog of stuff I have for VNO and COTD. I’m going to get the streetcar stuff organized first. Yes, I still shoot film and scan--when you have a Nikon FM2 and a few lenses, you get attached to it.
Death in Bridge City...
My suggestion for helping lower the juvie crime rate: Take one of the kids that witnessed this murder and send him on a tour of high schools in the state. Schedule assemblies at those schools and make the kids listen to what it’s like to go to jail. The problem with communicating to teens is their sense of total immortality. Have one of their own, not some Angola lifer who is 50+, come speak to them. Let a 14 year old tell about how he gets it up the butt and/or has the crap beaten out of him. Teens see some old guy, they can’t see themselves in his shoes. They see a 14 year old in a prison jumpsuit and leg irons, it’s a different story.
I didn’t watch the speech last night...
I’ll let the blogosphere tell me what the pResident said.
Beltane
1330 CDT
Priscella Owen Goes Down...
in flames...So long as Breaux keeps voting with the cacus on these wacko Bush appointments, the hard-core liburls need to chill.
1227 CDT
So Bush is going to fly out to a carrier...
Jeez, I hope he survives...seriously, can you imagine this corporate crook Cheney in charge? <shudder>
1015 CDT
Blessed Beltane to all!
Or Happy May Day to you communists...listening to Altan, good Irish folk music, perfect for a sunny Sabbat.
Looks like Urban Squad is back...
NOPD is getting tough...proactive patrols? Was “community policing” too touch-feely, or is this going to be a mix of both? Looks like both, since they’re going to do midnight basketball again.
I have so little patience with chat rooms...
It’s so hard to start a conversation in some of them. If you sit down at a table in a pub with a group of strangers, usually they do what they can to involve you in the conversation. In chat rooms, you feel like you’re interrupting people to just learn the basics about them. If you know of a good chat room where newbies are not made out to be outcasts, let me know.
30-Apr-2003
2204 CDT
I Like Eddie Compass...
...Superintendent of Police...this guy isn’t a polished politician from an out of town police department. He’s passionate and wants to succeed...
2116 CDT
If John Kerry was a Republican...
I’d start to wonder whether his aide Chris Lehane’s comments about Howard Dean were orchestrated to make Dean look good when he responded to Kerry/Lehane today.
Someone commented to Atrios the other day that Howard Dean is the “real Jed Bartlett”...one can only hope so...
Was in the car, picking up my son from school. I had a choice between David Tyree talking about putting kids in reform school or Tom Fitzmorris and his food show...I was eyeing the clock, wishing 4pm would come faster so I could listen to All Things Considered...<sigh>
Lunch...
I want to The Bakery, on Franklin Avenue in Gentilly, my old stomping grounds from my Brother Martin/UNO/teaching-at-Redeemer days. It was good to see Koz (the owner) and have a sloppy roast beef po-boy. Before lunch I drove up to Carrollton Station (as in the car barn, not the bar across the street) to see if there was anything neat up there, and took some more streetcar pictures. I need to get off my butt and put all that together.
The LouisianaDemocrat Mailing List...
...is getting on my nerves. I love these people who say “we need to demand that John Breaux be more liberal!” Yeah, like that’s gooing to happen in my lifetime. Breaux is a solid-citizen DLC Democrat. The only way he’ll lean left is if there was a liberal Dem president and the party held 55-60 seats in the Senate. Until then, guys like Breaux and Miller hold the cards and can make their own rules.
1143 CDT
Canal Streetcars
Got bored writing course outlines for Linux classes I teach, so I put together some pages on the New Canal Streetcar line I took a couple of weeks ago. I’m really psyched about the streetcars coming back to Canal Street. The merchants along North Carrollton Avenue are pissed as all get-out because the construction of the spur line has all but killed many businesses, but they’ll sing the line’s praises when it’s completed.
0918 CDT
So, I’m sitting at the CC’s
Coffee House in Old Metry, and the wireless ethernet interface on Stybba, my Acer TravelMate C100, keeps detecting a network. Now, the CC’s out in Kenner is wired/wireless, but not this one. This is when my Catholic school upbringing kicks in and makes me want to see which business upstairs set up wireless and didn’t secure it.
This happened a few weeks back, at the CC’s in the Garden District. I turned Stybba on, went to get a cinnamon bun at the counter, and was on the net by the time I got back to the table. Af first I figured, cool, this CC’s was wired. Then the network reset itself for some reason and I noticed that the router I was on was still set to the default name from the manufacturer. CC’s is smarter than that. So, I accessed the router, got the email address of the owner, and dropped him a note. About 40 minutes later, two very nice young guys came down from the office upstairs from the coffee place. We had a nice chat and I explained what they needed to do.
If you use wireless in the New Orleans office, and you’re either not sure whether or not you’re secure, or if this whole tale has left you clueless, you probably want to drop me an email, and we can talk. At the very least, I can bring Stybba over and see if just anyone can get into your network. Oh, and for those of you who don’t realize that I know what I’m talking about, go read my homepage.
0718 CDT
Senator Man-on-Dog
Michangelo has the right of it on Santorum. This guy will never live this interview down. Instead of a “Checkers” speech like Nixon, he’s going to have a “man on dog” speech.
On the issue of the miscarried baby--speaking as a parent who lost an infant child, that scenario is just weird. The people of PA should vote him out not because he’s the perfect leader for the Hitler Youth, but because he and his wife are ghouls.
Unchain My Heart...
Let me see if I get this straight...the producer of the Ray Charles film, “Unchain My Heart” is mad at the State of Louisiana because he can’t convert a tax credit incentive into cash. According to Yerton in da Paper, since the production company doesn’t do any business in Louisiana, they don’t have a tax liability for the credits to offset. Now he’s bitching that he won’t make a buck on moving the production from GA to LA. Doesn’t this guy have an accountant? Do they own a computer with a spreadsheet program? Jeez, we’re exporting all of our college graduates and importing stupid.
29-Apr-2003
2227 CDT
The Modern Battle of New Orleans
Louisiana Legislature...HB 629, a Joint Resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would authorize the BESE (Board of Elementary and Secondary Education) to provide for the operation of failed schools, including receiving, controlling, and expending certain funds.
This is huge. Really huge. Given how well and truly screwed up some of our public schools are, particulary in the city, one would think this sort of thing would be a no-brainer, but the scope of the mindset behind this bill is what makes it a big deal.
We may not have attached the Confederate flag to the Louisiana state flag at any time in our history, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have people who firmly believe that blacks have no business in positions of power and authority. Part of the Metairie Mindset(tm) that I’ve heard from people since I was a kid has been the contention that them thar evil Negroes were going to be the downfall of the city of New Orleans, and something should be done about it.
The catch was, of course, that the people bitching all had given up their right of franchise when they moved across the 17th Street Canal, and/or across the Causeway to the greener pastures of Jefferson and St. Tammany Parishes. No, you don’t have a say any longer in who runs the city. Too bad if you went to Nichols High or Beauregard Junior High, they’re Frederick Douglass Senior High and Thurgood Marshall Middle now. You can moan all you want from your suburban utopia, but it’s just not your decision, no matter now strong the Metairie Mindset(tm) has a hold on you.
There is only one thing that could possibly change this situation, and that was the total ineptitude of the Orleans Parish School Board over the last 30 years. Public schools in the city are an unmitigated disaster. Well, it’s worse than that, but I promised myself I would keep the language clean for at least the first day of this blog. The state has identified 23 schools where schools are performing so poorly that the state feels it has a compelling interest in taking them away from the control of local school districts and placing them under the control of the BESE.
Sounds reasonable, right? After all, there are a lot of public schools in the state, and if only 23 of them are this bad, well, maybe we should let the state run them and see if they can do better, right?
Twenty-one (21) of the targeted schools are in Orleans Parish.
The Legislature wants to start down the road that those holding the Metairie Mindset(tm) have been arguing for decades: take back control of the city from blacks because they can’t handle it and they’re ruining things. Drastic measures must be taken before things get any worse. Given how the OPSB has so totally abdicated responsibility for the city’s public schools, an interesting coalition of white and black legislators has come together to sponsor this resolution.
That’s the beauty of this situation from the perspective of the Metairie Mindset(tm) folks: The OPSB has become such a shining example of what is so very wrong with politics in the city and state that even blacks will relinquish some of their control. They have no choice; there is no money for the schools, no vision for their future, and certainly no leadership. If there ever was a time, place, and governmental body to bitch-slap, it’s now, in Orleans Parish, and it’s the school board members who only yesterday were still fighting with the new Superintendent because he’s trying to eliminate dead-wood administrative jobs.
It’s a dangerously slippery slope, however. Today it’s the school system. Tomorrow could easily be the airport, or the transit system. How about a regional commission to regulate historical landmarks? Or perhaps a state-run office to handle property assessments. Far fetched? Did you really think you would ever see the curtailment of civil liberties at a national level we have seen this year? And all we’re talking about with this resolution is a bunch of shiftless black politicians who steal more than they earn, right?
1407 CDT
Canal Street Brothel Madam Gets Six Months...
In a halfway house...Congrats to the DoJ for seeing this to completion. Hey, Ashcroft, how ya doing on catching Osama?
And while you’re pondering that...buy this:
1310 CDT
Pro-Life wackos at JazzFest?
We didn’t see any last Friday at the Fest, but callers to David Tyree’s show yesterday sure did over the weekend. Lots of reports of the kooks out on Mystery Street, between Esplanade and the side entrance to the Fair Grounds, with the poster-size photos of aborted fetuses. David’s callers were outraged that their children had to see those photos on the way to da Fest. Of course, it’s their right to use in-your face tactics, so long as they stay within the bounds of the First Amendment. They’re not the Dixie Chicks, after all.
Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe
Had lunch with two friends at Sake Cafe’, the one in Metairie. One of my friends is one of those evil trial lawyers you hear talk-radio and the White House demonizing all the time. When I asked him how his morning went, he was telling me how today was a pre-trial conference for a small lawsuit, less than $15,000 damages, if he wins. The insurance company he is suing has no interest in settling at this time. He figures that in July or so he will have to go to a “settlement conference, ” then they’ll have eleventh-hour meetings just before the trial date some time in October.
Now, his fee is the same whether they work this out now or he gets a judgement at trial (and he will get a judgement, this particular suit is not frivilous). But the other side’s lawyers can bill for all those hours of “preparation” and such on the way to judgement. The insurance defense firm is running up the tab (which gets passed back to the consumer), but it’s the evil trial lawyer’s fault?” It works both ways...kill ‘em all.
Sake’ was good, btw. They’ve added a couple of new lunch combos.
1004 CDT
Those Evil Deputies
Channel 26 makes makes a point of mentioning that Pillip Demma, who is tied up in the Bodenheimer/24th JDC scandal, is a “former Jefferson Parish sheriff’s reserve deputy.” Now, Harry Lee deserves all the bad publicity he can get as far as I’m concerned, but to tar him with the sins of a reserve deputy is a bit much even for me. Unless the guy has bought thousands of dollars of fais-do-do, tickets, of course...
0945 CDT
WWL’s website sucks...
Tried to register three times, and it kicked me back to the form each time, in spite of the fact that I filled it out completely...oh well, I’ve always preferred Channel 6’s site anyway, but figured that I would scan them all if I’m going to blog seriously...
0708 CDT
Messing with the Site...
So if you see the style change during the day, it’s me doing it...
School Board Management Shake-Up...
Amato at the OPSB must be doing something right, if he’s angered Cheryl Mills and Gail Glapion...the two of them are poster children for why we can’t attract jobs to the city--nonexistent elected leadership.
What’s up with Harry Lee?
What is it that motivates a 70-year old man to keep running for political office when he is in such poor health? Most people would bow out gracefully and enjoy the rest of their lives. Well, I guess since he’s going fishing next week, he’s enjoying his life on the taxpayer’s dime.
Grave-robbing sounds like pranksters to me...
Looks like the robberies at Greenwood Cemetery are the work of kids or amateur satanists or some such. While Greenwood Cemetery is huge in terms of number of tombs, it’s not as historically significant as other cemeteries, such as Metairie (across the interstate), or the St. Louis cemeteries. Vandals cause damage, but at least it doesn’t appear to be an organized theft ring.
