I am not even a football fan. I know very little about the game. I am not even from New Orleans. In fact, you may think this is sad but I never even stepped foot into a football arena until last year, when I saw my first game at The Super Dome in New Orleans. It was the Saints vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Of course, the Saints won. And, after that I felt that vague sense of gratification that Americans like to talk about. Don't get me wrong. I am American as they come. But I am more like American Masala. . . not American Meat & Potatoes.

Tonight, I put all that cultural mumbo jumbo aside and stand tall and proud for the City of New Orleans. (Yes I should be cheering for the Jets but that's a separate issue) Tonight the Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings by a nerve-racking margin. We can at least be happy for the persistent underdog, the team that has never seen the lights of the Super Bowl. And what a time to rep this city, five years post-Hurricane Katrina! It's about time something so positive happens for New Orleans. I am just happy that a wonderfully unique place like this gets to have a place in the spotlight. We can all certainly see what a morale booster it is for New Orleans' people, and a fair shake at boosting their local economy.

Who Dat!

Well, someone seems to have grown a pair, when he's willing to call out fakesters in the GOP by saying, "health care is an American issue". Color me impressed.

Not that I don't think Jindal's newfound cojones are rather underdeveloped. Whereas he's happy to say "Washington is the only place in the country that doesn't realize that this debate is over", he unfortunately throws a bone at the knuckle-dragging members of his party by also saying, "To be clear, the Republicans in Congress who have led the opposition to the Obama-Pelosi vision of health-care reform have done the right thing".

Suuuure.

Anyhow, he's the only one I can think of has actually sat down to write a friggin' list of counter-ideas for the party of NO. From Bobby Jindal - Some Republican Ideas for Health Care Reform:

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I have already discussed at some length the dismal and DELIBERATE Republican failures to maintain America's infrastructure. The Republican Party has a stated policy of "Drowning American in a Bathtub," essentially reducing government to nothing. This is how Republican guru Grover Norquist put it:

"Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal," Norquist stated in May 2000. "If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050"

We saw the direct and tragic result of that Republican "Drown America" policy in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, in closed and collapsed bridges in Minnesota, and now...floods in Iowa this month (June 7th).
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Imagine your son coming from school and telling you that he had to ask permission to the school principal to sit during recess under the "white's only" tree, which happens to be the only tree in the schoolyard. Then imagine your son coming back from school telling you that he could sit under that tree but now there were lynching nooses covering it.

Then imagine that word spreads. People of all ages and races talk about the incident. Some white and black kids get into an altercation and the rumble. One of the white kids draw a gun on 6 of the brawlers, but they're able to rumble harder with one of the white guy's friends.

Now, imagine you are the mother of one of those guys. The white kid that got his ass kick luckily is fine. He even goes to school and to an event the next day.

Now imagine being the mother of one of the 6 brawlers. While the white instigators threatened to kill the black teenagers with a gun, there's a police officer knocking on your door with a warrant for your son's arrest. The crime? Attempted murder. Not disorderly conduct or assault and battery, which would have been possible valid reasons to take your son to the police station. No. Your son is going to jail for attempted murder of a guy who walked away with some cuts and bruises.

That's what The Jena Six Case is all about.

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2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference

The International Drug Policy Reform Conference is the world's principal gathering of people who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. No better opportunity exists to learn about drug policy and to strategize and mobilize for reform.

The 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference will address a wide range of policy, legal, political and scientific issues including:
Drug Sentencing Reform
Treatment
Drug Testing
Race and the Drug War
Marijuana
HIV, Hep C and Overdose Prevention
International Developments
Drug Education
Entheogens-Science, Spirituality and Law
Alternatives to Prohibition
Pragmatic Steps for Ending the Drug War

This year's conference will be held at the Astor Crowne Plaza in the legendary French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. For a conference brochure and registration details, go to www.drugpolicy.org

Why New Orleans?

Old world ambiance, hot jazz, cool eats and sizzling night life... The Astor Crowne Plaza is within walking distance of many of the landmarks of New Orleans' worldwide appeal: courtyards and iron-laced balconies, famous restaurants and galleries, Bourbon Street, the mighty Mississippi River and legendary Jackson Square.

New Orleans also presents us with the opportunity of “Working Toward a New Bottom Line” – our conference theme. We can’t convene in this location without engaging the tragic conditions both the city and the state of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina laid bare an array of problems, many of which are exacerbated by drug war policies. Meanwhile, the state of Louisiana comes close to leading the nation in the rate at which it incarcerates people for drug law violations. But such excesses also create opportunities for reform. Drug policy reform has always been particularly challenging in the South, but we aim to use the International Drug Policy Reform Conference to build momentum for meaningful change – both in New Orleans and more broadly.
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Location

There are three Congressional races that still need out attention to round out the 2006 election year. All three are critical because all three address fraud on some level. FL-13 represents a major battle in the fight for election integrity and could lead to one more pick up for Democrats in the House. LA-2 represents a chance to replace an extremely corrupt poltiican who is likely to go to jail with an honest politician. NC-8 is a case where the Republican is trying to prevent the counting of all ballots, including those from areas where military families live. The Republican is just barely ahead and the Democrat picks up more votes each time a batch of uncounted ballots is finally counted. So whether you want to fight election fraud or more run-of-the-mill fraud, these three races deserve your attention.

All three races (described in detail below) can be found on my Final Races for 2006 Act Blue Page.

Christine Jennings Recount Fund

Jennings is running to replace Katherine "Stolen Election" Harris who prevented the 2000 recount in Florida and was rewarded by the Republican Party with this House seat. Harris tried moving on to the Senate, but failed. Jennings is locked in a neck and neck race to replace Harris. But Harris' legacy of election fraud continues as electronic voting machines in this district gave strange results, leading to an unusually large undercount. This suspicious behavior on the voting machines' part could cost Jennings the election. This one race could be the smoking gun that will discredit the eVote machines that do not have a legal paper trail.
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