Day: September 18, 2005

You can’t help but think that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is a little anxious to ring the cash registers of his city. It seems unfathomable that a couple of weeks after he himself predicted tens of thousands of dead and buildings submerged under water for months, Nagin would be pushing for a return of residents to the evacuated city. Talk about dangling a big carrot in front of their noses. The Big Easy isn’t quite so easy yet. Danger continues to exist.

It seems as though Ray Nagin is stricken with a malady I like to call “Larry Vaughn” syndrome.

Remember the movie Jaws? Larry Vaughn was the major of Amity, the small island community plagued by a big ol’ mutha of a shark. In the movie Mayor Vaughn knew danger existed. He knew if he let people back on the beaches to swim there would be a pretty good chance that they’d be bitten by that shark. But in the end, that didn’t matter. What did matter was opening Amity for business. Tourist dollars. Money. All he had to do was be sure the crowds showed up. Then, the business people would be happy. After all, “Amity means Friendship”.

Does Ray Nagin have a little Larry Vaughn in him? Is he putting the interests of overly excited French Quarter businesses ahead of the safety of visiting tourists and residents who live in New Orleans?

If Nagin is Vaughn, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen is Police Chief Martin Brody.

A weakened levee system and a lack of drinkable tap water will make it “extremely problematic” to follow the New Orleans mayor’s timeline for allowing residents to return to the evacuated city, the head of the federal disaster relief effort said Saturday.

Vice Adm. Thad Allen said federal officials have worked with Mayor Ray Nagin and support his vision for repopulating the city, but he called Nagin’s idea to return up to 180,000 people to New Orleans in the next week both “extremely ambitious” and “extremely problematic.”

Allen called on the mayor to be “mindful of the risks” and said he would inform Nagin of his concerns at a meeting set for Monday.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the newly patched levees, in their current state, would probably not protect the city from the storm surge of a category 3 hurricane. And as we already know, hurricane season isn’t over yet. Danger still exists.

The shark is still in the water.

Keep your head Ray. Listen to Thad. Wait.

In the end, Amity’s beaches closed and remained that way until the risk was eliminated. It’s a good example and a lesson Nagin should pay heed to. Don’t try to be the hero for a few businesses who happen to have a dry floor, plumbing that works, and a couple of kegs of beer on ice. The short term economic gain isn’t worth the potential hazards that still exist.

Others: New Orleans Mayor Defends Return Plan | Business Owners Trickle Back In | Bush Questions Reopening of New Orleans |

UPDATE: Nagin suspends the return of evacuees

A year ago, Floridians wouldn’t have batted an eye at Rita.

But Hurricane Katrina changed everything.

Tourists were told to evacuate the lower Florida Keys on Sunday as a new tropical depression strengthened over the Bahamas and moved toward the vulnerable, low-lying island chain. A hurricane watch was posted for the entire Florida Keys.

“It does look like that there is the potential for it to become a hurricane, near or just before it reaches the Florida Keys,” said Daniel Brown, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center.

The watch means that hurricane conditions with sustained wind of at least 74 mph are possible by late Monday, according to the Miami-based hurricane center. If its sustained wind speed climbs to 39 mph, the depression would be named Tropical Storm Rita, the 17th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Once it enters the gulf, that’s when it’s time to really pay attention.

Others: Rita Headed for the Florida Keys |

Gerhard Schroeder is pulling an ‘Al Gore’, or a ‘John Kerry’; they both work in this case. Exit polls say he’s out, but he’s refusing to concede defeat to Angela Merkel.

Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel’s party leading in German parliamentary elections Sunday but falling short of the majority she needed to form a center-right coalition as the nation’s first female chancellor.

Gerhard Schroeder, written off as a lame duck a few weeks ago, finished stronger than expected and refused to concede defeat, saying he could still theoretically remain in power if talks with other parties were successful.

No one “theoretically” remains in power.

Let’s face it, losing stinks. No one wants to be the loser. Moreover, it’s hard to be a gracious loser. You’ve got to stand up in front of supporters who perhaps hate your opponent more than you do. Still, you smile, and in the case of Gerhard, you clasp your hands and raise them above your head in a victory pose. Problem is, the look on your face says it all. You’ve lost.

  

They know it. Angela knows it. Your party knows it.

You can take a bit of solace in the fact that Angela won’t have quite the power she had hoped to have.

Had Merkel reached a majority with the Free Democrats, they would have formed a center-right government to push through her proposals to get the economy going and cut unemployment by making it easier for small firms to fire people, cutting payroll taxes and giving companies more flexibility to opt out of one-size-fits-all regional wage agreements.

If she does become chancellor, she likely will have to water down her program as she partners with a party to her left in order to hold 50 percent of the seats in parliament. Merkel’s party already controls the upper house of parliament.

Analyst suggest that a ‘grand coalition’ between Angela’s party and Schroeder’s party could be formed. But we all know that is wishful thinking. Partisanship is partisanship – here or across the Atlantic in Germany. Every time a decision has to be made a fight will break out.

Not good for either party, and more importantly, not good for the German people. You’ve had control of the ball for awhile Gerhard. Now it’s time to hand it to Angela.

Gooden tag.

Others: David Medienkritik | Schroeder Refuses to Concede | No clear winner after German vote | Germany Weighs Next Move |