A Yankee In New Orleans, Part II

My latest ‘Notes From A Polite New Yorker’ column is now online on the Kotori Magazine Web site. Please check it out and leave comments, and then tell all of your friends to read it and leave comments.

Read about my counters with alligators, my journey to the tomb of John Kennedy Toole, and my tracing the footsteps of Ignatius J. Reilly.

One thing I neglected to mention in the column: On the Westwego Swamp Tour, Captain Tom Billiot fed marshmallows to the alligators. It is illegal to feed meat to an alligator, as they would associate humans with meat and would be more likely to see us as food instead of providers of food. Billiot explained that marshmallows are ideal to feed to alligators because they float, are easily visible and will be eaten by other animals if the gators ignore them. Every marshmallow I saw him throw was eagerly eaten by an alligator.

I also managed to get to a very good punk rock show at the Dragon’s Den. The Toaster’s were headlining, but I was not able to stay for them. I saw the Zydepunks and a band from Chicago called Flatfoot 56, both excellent.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that even though I was in New Orleans in November, there were still beads stuck in the trees and power lines from Mardi Gras the previous February.

Stay Skeptical

Barack Obama will be sworn is as President of the United States today, and the endless coverage of this event has been a gushing tribute. The media is reveling in the cult of personality Obama established in his run for the presidency.

People are planning where they will watch this historic event, gushing about missing work or finding a way to steal away from their jobs to watch Obama take his oath of office and endure the kingly pomp and circumstance I’m convinced would have sickened George Washington.

While many of my friends and coworkers plan to celebrate, I cannot help but remain skeptical. We are saying good bye to a bought and paid for Republican President who had no idea what he was doing and saying hello to a bought and paid for Democratic President who knows what he is doing but isn’t going to do the right thing either.

I expect that I will experience a lot of schadenfreude over the next four years as people realize they were sold a false bill of goods. Few seem to notice that he went back on his word regarding public campaign financing, domestic spying, offshore oil drilling, and withdrawing troops from Iraq—and that was just during the campaign. His positions in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants (which he’s basically shelved for the time being, apparently) and his vacillation on the Second Amendment (not to mention the Fourth Amendment) made me unable to vote for him, but I can see why people did. After eight years of disaster, it was more of a gamble to go with McCain. And people see in Obama what they want to see.

Obama really is no better than any other politician. He’s not any worse, and it will be a relief to have a President who can speak well and not act like a buffoon. But he raised approximately $687 million during his campaign, and the bulk of that money did not come from small donors as his supporters would have you believe. Sadly, that kind of money talks louder than the Constitution, the needs of working Americans, or any gaggle of bloggers.

If we learned anything over the last eight years, it is that blind trust and praise in leaders during a time of crisis can be disastrous. So it was with Bush, so will it be with Obama. Don’t for one minute think that because we have a smarter president we can let our guard down. It’s never a bad time to stay skeptical.

Good Riddance

George W. Bush is spending his last weekend as President of the United States. For political opponents of an outgoing president, this would normally this would be the time to offer thanks for years of service and best wishes for the future. Whatever conciliatory remarks I could make, they would be in the context that should Bush ever face a criminal trail for things he did while in office, he should be afforded all the protections the Constitution provides, even though he denied them to others.

While I could in no way support either Barack Obama or John McCain, I was happy that the election was a repudiation of George W. Bush. It was eight years too late, but it was good to see.

I am proud to count myself among the many who saw that the emperor had no clothes from the beginning. I couldn’t believe someone with his limited knowledge and transparent posturing could secure his party’s nomination. No way will the Republicans be so stupid as to nominate Bush, I thought to myself at the time, they’ll nominate McCain, who would do much better against Al Gore. But nominate him they did, and Bush managed to obtain the presidency.

While there are many scandals and shortcomings to choose from, I believe that the Bush administration will be most infamous for its ruthless exploitation of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The wreckage of the Twin Towers was still smoldering when the Republican National Committee began circulating photos of George W. Bush from that day in their fundraising letters. A Commander in Chief who managed to avoid service in both the Texas Air National Guard and Vietnam put on a flight suit and landed on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln like a taxpayer-financed version of ‘Top Gun.’ Pathetic.

Bush was consistently dishonest in both his rhetoric and his policies. He racked up more vacations than press conferences, handed over responsibility of important functions of government to incompetent political hacks, and shrugged off responsibility for all of it.

Bush’s glib manner insulted the dignity of his office and exhibited his lack of capacity to hold it. His disastrous policies that did not involve outright crime, corruption or fraud consisted of empty half measures and catch phrases. He was, as they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle.

Thanks for nothing, Mr. Bush.

Welcome 2009

Few people think that 2008 was a good year. The worst economic disaster in the lifetime of anyone under the age of 67 started this year, though it shouldn’t have surprised anyone to learn that our recession began last year. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continued to kill scores of Americans (U.S. death toll so far for the Iraq War: 4,221; for Afghanistan: 630). Several friends were laid off from work. Two people close to me passed away last year. I found one of their phone numbers still in my cell phone. I still haven’t deleted it. Good riddance, 2008.

I welcomed 2009 with a small group of friends. Like St. Patrick’s Day, New Year’s Eve becomes a giant amateur hour in New York’s bars. Prices and crowds go up and common sense bottoms out. I went to Connecticut and spent the night at the home of some high school friends, sitting by a fire and drinking in the wisdom of the great philosopher James B. Beam.

And like the start of every year, this year offers a new start, a new beginning. Things can be different, better, if we work hard enough for it.

Happy New Year.