An Attorney General to the rescue

Well, it only took a couple of days before new Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell was able to swing into action and launch a criminal probe into the actions of Mayor Eddie Price, Jr. as well as others in his administration. As was revealed on TV and in the pages of the Times Picayune, the mayor has allegedly been involved in regularly accepting gifts and in kind donations from a slew of businessmen who do business with the city. He piled up approximately $9,000 in personal charges and $500 in gasoline charges on city credit cards for which he never paid back the city. According to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's report, others allegedly misusing city credit cards were finance director Milton Stiebing, city attorney David Cressy and, not to leave out the ladies, planning director Louisette Kidd. Mandeville police chief Tom Buell, the original source of allegations that launched he investigation, was also rebuked for allegedly using $140,000 from a Christmas toy fund to pay for parties and gifts for Mayor Price and other city officials. Following the recusal of St. Tammany Parish district attorney Walter Reed, Caldwell saw an opening and took it. Caldwell, the first Jewish Louisiana Attorney General, was moved by one of the lessons he learned in his religious school education, to wit, the Commandment that read "Thou shalt not steal."

Mandeville's Mayoral Mess

After having survived the fallout from his alleged drunk driving incident at the Causeway, after everyone else involved was either fired or resigned, it seems like Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price, Jr. is self-destructing even further. Apparently he is intent on being run out of town on a rail or else being involuntarily escorted to a state or federal penitentiary. Although he claims he never has betrayed the exalted office he holds, it would seem that he is stretching the realms of believability with the latest report released by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor. The report found instances where Hizzoner had accepted free golfing trips to exotic greens like Pebble Beach and free hunting trips paid for by a number of different people who have done business with the city. Price managed to use his city supplied gasoline and other credit cards to pay for all sorts of personal items for which he never reimbursed the city. Hmmm...perhaps he is taking his lead from Mayor Ray Nagin, who appeared before the New Orleans City Council to deflect pressure from the news media and the Council as to what has been going on with the embattled New Orelans Affordable Housing agency (NOAH). NOAH has been soundly criticized for claiming to have rehabbed houses in different New Orleans neighborhoods, but when the work was checked, either no work seemed to have been done or in some cases the house no longer existed. Nagin admitted there were "irregularities" in their record keeping, which disturbed him, but he claimed the news media, WWL-TV and the Times-Picayune in particular, were blowing it way out of proportion. I guess if we were to believe Mayor Nagin, we would also have to take Mayor Price as a man of his word. After all, these are elected officials and they would never allow their office to be bought and sold by vested interests. This is post-Katrina Louisiana and that just doesn't happen anymore, right?

Jewish natation notes

There are two stories about the Olympic swimming events that have major connections to Jewish swimmers. The first has received a large amount of coverage because it had a direct impact on Michael Phelps' quest for eight Olympic gold medals. The incredible comeback for the U.S. team in the 4 x 100 meter relay was made possible last night by Jason Lezak, whose 46.06 anchor leg was the fastest ever swum, beating the 100 meter world record holder Alain Bernard of France by one one-hundredth of a second (0:00:01). Bernard, who had issued invectives on behalf of the French team against the Americans taunted them saying France would "smash them." He occupied the lane next to Lezak. Not only was this Lezak's personal best, but he contributed mightily to shattering the world record time that he and his teammates had set yesterday at the preliminaries at 3:12:23. This new world record shaved off nearly four seconds from that record at 3:08:24. Wow! Previous to the Olympics, Lezak held three world records, five American records, four Olympic medals and eight national titles. Now consider one other factor. Lezak is the oldest swimmer on the U.S. men's team at 32. Also contributing as part of the phenomenal team effort was the second leg swum by Garrett Weber-Gale, who hit gold in his Olympic debut. Like Lezak, Weber-Gale now owns a world record, an Olympic gold medal, and happens to be Jewish. While the media may have been deemed the other a "smaller" story, it does have a lot to say about what in life is truly important. Israeli swimmer Alon Mandel set a new national record at the Olympics when he finished fourth in one of the men's 200 meter butterfly heats with his time of 1:59:27. Despite this incredible time, Mandel did not qualify for the semi-finals, but it was obvious that he had swum his heart out. This was because that heart was broken earlier in the week when it was revealed that his father Kostia had died in an accidental fall from a ladder at his family home in Netanya, Israel. Rather than drop his Olympic dream, Mandel was counseled by his mother Rina not to return home for the funeral, but to concentrate on doing his best at the Olympics as his father would have wanted him to do. Mandel's sister Maya watched in the stands at the "Water Cube" Aquatics Center in Beijing as she cheered her brother on. Mandel is just one of seven Israeli swimmers competing in the 2008 Games, but his performance gives the tiny nation beset with so many political problems a litle bit to cheer about at this 27th Olympiad of the modern era.

Big Mac

(Photo Copyright Reuters)

There was always something about Bernie Mac. Whether you saw him on the big screen or on TV, he was always naturally funny. Yet, there was an underlying sadness that seemed ready to come out, yet never really did. That kind of humor which results from dealing with strife and misfortune has defined some of the greatest comic geniuses of our time. As a teenager, he lost his mother to breast cancer and in a relatively short order his grandfather and two brothers also died. "Comedy comes from pain," he admitted more than once, but Mac, whose onstage persona got him in trouble as recent as a few weeks ago when he opened at a Barack Obama fundraiser event, claimed that he really wasn't funny. No, he insisted, he was only channeling other family members who were infinitely more hilarious. His onstage comedy was filled with racy language, but he knew that his core audience never expected him to be "clean" like Bill Cosby. He was wise in knowing that. On TV Mac catapulted himself from a guest star on "Moesha" into his own slot on Fox that ran for five years. Despite the onset of the lung disease sarcoidosis in 2004 which shut down production for a while, Mac's TV series was honored with several awards including a highly-regarded Peabody Award; a Humanitas Award for his promotion of human dignity, meaning and freedom; and an Emmy Award for outstanding writing . He received several Television Critics awards and an NAACP Image Award as well as the NAACP's nod as outstanding actor in a comedy for four years in a row from 2002 through 2006. His disease was reported to be in remission in 2005. One of the "Original Kings of Comedy," Mac's career had achieved near superstar status after becoming an integral part of the New Rat Pack of George Clooney's "Oceans" movies franchise. He starred in a few other films like "Mr. 3000" (which he filmed here at Zephyrs Stadium), last year's "Transformers" and "Bad Santa" opposite Billy Bob Thornton, but one could always feel his best work was forthcoming. Indeed, "Soul Men" with Samuel L. Jackson and "Old Dogs" starring John Travolta will both feature the Chicago native's last work before the camera. Although he was never truly one of my favorite comic performers at first, I respected him for his innovative work and admired him for the strength of character he portrayed. I had become a bigger fan in recent years, especially after his roles had grown in importance. At the conclusion of his TV episodes, Mac would invariably break character and address "America," referring to himself in third person. It seems somehow fitting that a man whose comedy was condensed to just 50 years would have such a luxury. On reflection I'll miss that big guy with the bug eyes a lot.

Olympic Effort

Oh, my goodness! Did someone ever see a better initiation for an Olympics? I believe the Chinese have set a new standard for opening ceremonies with a pyrotechnics display that may never be rivaled. But these are the guys that invented gunpowder. So, why shouldn't they do it better than anyone else? I am in absolute awe, but when it really gets down to it, I probably will be more impressed with the performances of the athletes competing in this Olympiad. I have great hopes for all of the competition, but I hate all the attention being put on Michael Phelps. Four years ago he faltered in Athens in his attempt to best Mark Spitz's mark of seven gold medals. If he gets any amount of gold medals less than eight, everyone in the media will be commenting about how terrible it was that he didn't make it. Excuse me? We're talking about winning gold medals here -- beating the best in the world for eight times in a row. Even if he did his very best, there is no reason to believe that any one of the numbers in the field could also rise to the occasion and find that inner strength and resolve to nudge Phelps. So, I won't be sitting on the sidelines commenting about how poor Michael Phelps couldn't make it. I am going to cheer him on and support him one race at a time. Should he make it, I will be happy for him and the United States. However, should he be edged in any of his races, I will consider how fortunate he is to have an opportunity to compete against the penultimate of talented swimmers in the world and earnestly believe that he did his very best.

The Death of Mr. Floppy

MR. FLOPPY

(Pictured with his older, deceased brother below)

While you were sleeping last night, we all lost a former valuable friend. Once regarded as an essential part of every computer, the A:/ drive, "Mr. Floppy," has gone on to computer heaven, replaced by the much younger, more robust and dependable flash drive. Years ago every computer had a true "floppy" drive that read thin, flexible magnetic disks suspended in an outer plastic casing, which allowed them to be handled by end-users. The capacity of these floppy disks introduced originally by IBM in an eight-inch format were approximately 76.7 kilobytes. Commercially available since 1971, the floppies, as most English-speaking computer enthusiasts called them, went through a series of improvements to make them smaller and able to hold more data. By 1978 a smaller version at five and one-quarter (5 1/4) inches was available and it was utilized to run applications or even an entire operating system such as Microsoft's DOS (disk operating system). The popularity of these disks lasted for several years until the three and one-half (3 1/2) inch varieties began to be manufactured. Even though the smaller 3.5 inch disks were encased in a hard shell, they were still affectionately known as floppy disks to computer enthusiasts. At first only one side of the floppies were able to be read, holding a maximum of 720 kilobytes of data. Eventually, though, both sides were able to be read, yielding an impressive 1.44 megabytes (1.44Mb) of data. At the time this was considered a huge amount of data that could be placed in a pocket or a purse. In humorous fashion, computer networkers have often referred to this ability to share data on what would later be termed local area networks by the tongue-in-cheek labels of "Sneakernet" or "Frisbeenet." Several computer companies manufactured both 3.5 inch A:/ and 5.25 inch B:/ drives in their personal computer offerings in the 1980s and 1990s. When Windows 95 was first unveiled to the public, it was only available in the 3.5 inch format and B:/drives went the way of the dodo shortly thereafter. Mr. Floppy was once considered invicible. Boot disks and startup disks were necessary in order to troubleshoot computer problems. Mr. Floppy interceded on behalf of the end user time and time again. In recent years as flash memory with no moving parts or friction came onto the scene and the demands of applications that required larger and larger executable programs than could be held by Mr. Floppy, it became obvious that he was headed for obscurity. Mr. Floppy became as useless as a pair of stretch socks that become "quitters." The death knell was sounded when Intel began manufacturing motherboards that didn't even have a place for a floppy drive to be added. For those that mourn the loss of Mr. Floppy, who has joined his older brother B:/drive in the firmament of outmoded computer parts, there are two things to take to heart. First, there are several external floppy disk readers that work on USB ports regularly selling for less than $50 each. Compared to $20 for internal disk readers, they are a bit pricier, but they are fully compatible with the newer motherboards. A word of caution, though. Some don't report as an A:/drive. Teac and others make an external floppy disk reader that does report as an A:/ drive. Some flash drive devices require they occupy the F:/drive space on a computer and that may create a conflict with an external floppy disk that occupies that same drive letter. So be careful that your external floppy drive reports as an A:/ drive or you may be constantly plugging and unplugging your drive in order to use your wireless mouse, optical player devices and your jump drive along with the external floppy reader. Lastly, regardless of where Mr. Floppy has gone, he will always be a part of our computer culture. Anyone who has saved a document will see an icon that serves to recall Mr. Floppy and what he once stood for all those many years ago. He has moved from being indispensable and the sine que non of computing to a metaphor of the past. As long as we remember him for what he did, he will truly never be gone from our hearts. Aside from his older brother, Mr. Floppy is survived by his numerous flash drive cousins, his hard drive father and, of course, his motherboard. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to be made to the computer scrapyard.

Levees.org

In the true spirit of Hillel who once asked "If I am not for myself, who will be? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now...when?" comes Sandy Rosenthal, a wife, mother and community activist. Rosenthal, an attractive, tall blonde has a very slight speech impediment, but she never has let it get in her way of speaking her mind, especially since she saw the devastation of what happened to New Orleans in the wake of the levee breaks that followed Hurricane Katrina. To that end she founded the socially conscious Levees.org organization while she and her family, including her teenager son Stanford, were all evacuated in Lafayette, Louisiana. Levees.org has time and time again held the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for the flooding that took place. Since it was the job of the Corps to maintain the levees and to make certain that they were properly designed to protect the property and citizens of the city, she reckons, they should be held accountable for the disaster of the resulting flooding following the surge brought into New Orleans by the hurricane. Sometime after the flooding subsided and the recovery effort had begun, Rosenthal's organization began putting up yard signs demanding that the Corps of Engineers be held accountable. As a result of stinging accusations, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issued a report that essentially cleared the Corps of any wrongdoing. Rosenthal and her organization called foul there because, among other things, the ASCE report was paid for with Corps of Engineers funds (about $2 million). The community watchdog organization went so far as to make a satiric video showing a high school classroom discussing the very idea that such a report would be free of any influence. It generated a great deal of accusations of being unfair by the Corps and other engineers closely associated with them. Suggesting that such a relationship was a clear conflict of interest, a University of California-Berkeley professor, Raymond Seed, pushed for an independent review of the actions of both the Corps of Engineers and ASCE. Seed claims that at most every turn, the Corps and ASCE prevented his investigation from completing its fact finding mission. In fact he claims both of the parties undermined the review he had initiated along with the National Science Foundation and has charged that the funding of the initial review by ASCE was a clear ethics violation. Rosenthal and her organization have pushed for an investigation of the Corps' failure to prevent the cataclysm and the alleged conflict of interest, which has been termed the 8/29 investigation. Both Rosenthal and Seed have been critical of an internal investigation being conducted by three former presidents of ASCE because it has dragged on for many more months than they feel it should. According to a spokesperson for ASCE, that independent group referred to as the CPC moves at its own pace. According to a report in the Times-Picayune, retired U.S. Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) claims the CPC has experienced difficulty in meeting because of the schedules of its members. A report is now expected to be released during September. Rosenthal and Seed have continued to express dismay over the slow progress being made by ASCE and Seed additionally alleges that a list of witnesses he provided to them over nine months ago have never been contacted by the review board. Rosenthal's son won a Youth in Philanthropy award last November from the Greater New Orleans chapter of the Association of Fund Raising Professionals based in part on his work as the webmaster for the Levees.org website. There is no question from where the son gets his inspiration and drive. Perhaps Sandy Rosenthal is emblematic of that other famous Hillel quote, to wit, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow."