Bruce Biles, the self-described “Editilla O’rilla d’Aphasia” who blogs daily at the New Orleans News Ladder, has big problems with this week’s Gambit commentary, “End the War of Words,” which called for a rapproachment of sorts between the group Levees.org and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Here’s his rebuttal, titled “Editilla Hates Squeezably Soft Issues”. A sample:

Gambit, do not ask us to support ASCECORPS, the very Perps responsible for flooding our city. They had no intention of doing anything even remotely like this 8/29 Investigation. They were offered participation and refused. They have crimes to hide, hence a true, honest public peer review works contrary to their aims.

If you care about the levee battles, I hope you read what Bruce has to say…and if you’re not familiar with his unique vernacular style, I hope you enjoy that as well. Thanks for reading, Editilla…and thanks for caring so much about the city.

(I know I’ll be adding the phrase “bullskidoo spinfiltration” to my everyday vocabulary.

)

I just tumbled to Schroeder’s wrapup of Thursday’s city council meeting over at People Get Ready. It’s really well-written, but what makes it a real keeper is the fact that he posted two interesting recordings. One is a broadcast of Mayor Nagin’s remarks at the hearing, and the other is a call to WWL-AM’s Spud McConnell by Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, who “wanted to make some clarifications.” And she does. (Click here to hear it.)

But, dang, Spud — next time you get a whistleblower like Gadbois on the horn, ask her some questions and let her talk, eh?

I’m about to post the last entry by Gambit’s first-ever guest blogger, Clifton Harris. Thanks, Cliff — it’s been a pleasure to publish your work, and I hope people continue to follow your writing at your own blog, Cliff’s Crib. (Somehow I think Cliff will be back here again, someday somehow someway.)

And a big welcome to Leigh, the blogger behind Liprap’s Lament, whose first entry will appear here sometime next week. Leigh describes herself as a homemaker, mom, and teacher — and she has a lot to say about coping with all those roles in today’s New Orleans.

If you want to get to know a little about Leigh right now, head over to her blog and read her current post on the always-controversial subject of kids in restaurants, and something that happened yesterday at the CC’s on Magazine Street:

I’ve gotten better receptions from people in the bars in NYC when I’ve had my son in tow than from the folks in the coffee house today. I do my best to be an advocate for my son and for a public that has great potential to be annoyed by his antics, and I end up feeling split in two.

Pardon me, O Omnipotent Public, but I’m sick of the split. And your reason ain’t all that reasonable to me….because, in the end, the raising of children can turn reason upside-down, inside-out, and create whole new dimensions. Welcome to my world.

And awaaaay we go…

Hmmm. The long-rumored front-page facelift. Fancy fancy:

(For some reason, I get a sign-on screen whenever I go to the new page, but if I hit “cancel” it takes me right in….)

What do you think? Easier to use? Easier to read? Harder to find what you want?And what do you make of the fact that the words “Times-Picayune” are barely visible on the page?

(For those who don’t know — Nola.com is owned by Advance Internet, which uses the Times-Pic’s content; the two are corporate second cousins, sort of, and not the same thing at all…as anyone who works at either company will be glad to tell you at extreme and sometimes profane length.)

Here’s Nola.com’s breakdown about the changes…which is also scant on mentions of The Times-Picayune itself…despite the fact that the newspaper provides much if not most of the current content. Make of that what you will.

Allison King, a masters student at the University of Texas at Austin, has created a great online history of the Hansen’s Sno-Bliz iconic snowball stand.

Created with the help and cooperation of Ashley Hansen, granddaughter of the late founders Ernest and Mary Hansen, the Web site is a living multimedia document and a rich piece of nostalgia. There’s a Flickr site for the Hansen family photos (check out the shots of Mrs. Hansen with Willard Scott on The Today Show), a blog, and an online multimedia exhibit.

Allison has even set up a YouTube page with some great footage — check out this home movie taken at Hansen’s in 1991:

Craigslist is an excellent resource. But, on occasion, it can lead to more questions than answers. Take this post, for instance:

Are you the #1 Saints fan? Do you watch every second of every game - multiple times? To you have interesting ideas about the team and the NFL? Can you put those ideas into regular blog postings? If so, I have the perfect opportunity for you. I run a New Orleans Saints fan / blog site and I need some real fans who would like to write regular blog postings for the site. The site has a modest amount of traffic already so I am making a little bit of money from the site which I will split with the other bloggers. So you can even earn a little money doing something you love.

First of all, who is this person running this Saints “fan / blog site” and which site is it? Secondly, isn’t it a bit counter-intuitive to claim that you run a “New Orleans Saints fan / blog” site and then ask for “real fans” to write for it? Is this person saying they aren’t a “real fan” (at the very least, they’ve already made it clear that they’re not the #1 Saints fan cause they’re actively searching for it)? Also, since this site is presumably up and running — with a “modest amount of traffic” — doesn’t it undermine everything you’ve done and compromise your “modest” readership by admiting that you aren’t the Saints #1 fan (or even a “real fan”)?

I’ve e-mailed these questions to the Craigslist posting. Hopefully this person won’t take offense to my critiques, as I fuly support any and all Saints fan blogs and their growing prosperity (if only becaues it gives me more places to link to and thus making my life easier).

(The following is by Gambit guest blogger and New Orleans East resident Clifton Harris, who maintains his own blog, Cliff’s Crib. You can read more of his writing there.)

I loved New Orleans enough to come back home after losing my grandmother, all my possessions and my pet in Hurricane Katrina. I have been able to live through every misrepresentation and stressful process on the way to rebuilding. Nothing has made me more skeptical about my future in this city and more aggravated about coming back than trying to register a child for school. I have had more tirades about this situation than anything else because it involves my baby. I have written about this from the parent’s perspective of trying to find a school. My blog friends Leigh and G have tons of other information on this if you want the nuts and bolts. This story is my experience. Judging by the stories I hear from people I know personally, there are probably thousands of stories just like this. This is a recap of what happened so far and where we are today….

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As the Blog of New Orleans (aka “Gambit Daily”) expands, we’ll be bringing in other voices and other writers on a regular basis: Gambit’s new guest bloggers. I’m excited.

There are a lot of good writers in the New Orleans blogosphere. Some of them are actually great. (There are a few clunkers, too, of course — but newspapers and magazines also have their share of those.) Meanwhile, newspapers don’t have room to print the thoughts of all the good writers in the community…and as you probably know, most daily papers are shrinking by the day.

Our solution: guest bloggers — people with whom we’ll contract for a limited number of posts on any topic of their choosing. They will have to conform to Gambit’s rules about slander/libel and obscenity/profanity, just like any other writer on this site. Beyond that, we won’t be telling them what to write, and we won’t be editing them. We will be printing their thoughts, linking back to their pages, and hoping that you’ll engage them in dialogue both here and on their home turf. And when their contracts are up and we’ve moved on to the next guest blogger, we hope you’ll continue reading our bloggers emeritus on their own Web sites.

To anticipate your next question: yes, the guest bloggers will be paid like any other writer for Gambit. There are a lot of Web sites out there (some of them mighty mighty) that entice writers to write for free with the dubious promise of “valuable exposure.” (I’ve made my living writing for 20 years and have yet to have “valuable exposure” pay my rent or wash my socks.) The money is not much, but it’s enough for a few lunches (or Abitas). More than that, it’s a sign of respect for the writers you’ll read here…and for aspiring writers and bloggers everywhere: your words are valuable.

This guest-blogger thing is still evolving. I’m sure there are other issues, and we’ll deal with them as they arise. But for right now, this is all I can think of. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll see if I can get answers for you.

Later today you’ll meet our first guest blogger: Clifton Harris of Cliff’s Crib. Cliff lives in New Orleans East, and he’s been blogging since 2004.

We passed around Cliff’s first piece at the lunch table today, and it engendered a lot of discussion. I hope you’ll like reading what Cliff has to say, and I hope you’ll talk to him…and us. –Kevin

As We Could Be Famous reported earlier this evening:

HUD, the FBI, and New Orleans’ inspector general have all opened up investigations into NOAH.

WWLTV will report this later.

And indeed the station did, in yet another excellent report by Lee Zurik. It was 7-8 minutes long, and WWL just has the prècis on its website at the moment (the video will probably be up soon), but these are the high points:

Eyewitness News has learned that New Orleans Inspector General Robert Cerasoli, HUD and the FBI have launched investigations into the city’s non-profit agency – New Orleans Affordable Home Ownership – and the home remediation program that ran from December 2006 to July 2007.

In addition, Mayor Ray Nagin has asked the city’s Office of Recovery to look into the matter, according to Ceeon Quiett, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

The investigations follow a series of reports by Eyewitness News that raised questions about the program.

What a difference a week makes in City Hall:

“How is that report helping this recovery?” Nagin asked at a July 22 press conference. “It is not, and it’s hurting this city, and you need to stop it.”

From “stop it” to “we’re looking into it” in one week.

It’s fair to say that Zurik is owning this story in the mainstream media right now, but he’s sharing custody with some dogged New Orleans bloggers who have been providing excellent digging and reportage, two of the most prominent being We Could Be Famous and Karen Gadbois of Squandered Heritage, who smelled a story first…and cared enough about their city’s recovery to do something about it.

With these people on it — and others — I don’t think the story is over yet. Not by a long shot.

Ever read The Rude Pundit? “Rude” isn’t quite the word — he makes George Carlin sound like a Carmelite nun — but, dang, is he ever funny, and despite the fact that he’s a Nor’easterner, his level of outrage at the “rebuilding” of New Orleans is pitched at permanent 11.

The Rude One goes on vacation Monday, and he’s decided to turn over his popular blog for a week to a clutch of smart Netwriters from our fair parish….

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