Wow, I'll be passing that info out NOW.. Very cool web site. Unfortunately, although you likely were looking at my house, I do, in fact, have 2" of water currently standing in it. But after visiting N.O. proper, I could really give a schit. I'll replace the missing parts of my home. Many many people have no home to rebuild anymore, and if they do, it's likely so contaminated by the toxic sludge it will never be inhabitable again, they will have to start from scratch.

As to what Billie was saying, he is, unfortunately, right. It is a simple fact that when I was at the airport, working my way through a festering mass of people, I was able to walk pretty much anywhere I wanted because of one fact. I was white. I, too, haven't showered in 6 days, hair dissheveled, was wearing a nasty old t-shirt. I COULD go wherever I want since I have a badge from the mayor's office, but I was never required to show it. Call it profiling if you like, but understand, our cops are over 50% black in New Orleans. Hard to accuse them of racism, just that they know reality. That is absolutely not to say that all blacks are criminal, far from it. Or that no whites are. I know better. But the ratio here is undeniable. (By the way, our mayor is black and he is constantly talking about the problem of black on black crime as one of the major problems here).

One bit of good news. The National Guard is here in full force, and looting has been all but stopped. They have now started opening fire on looters and have killed at least fifteen today. This is a good thing as the looters are the ones preventing emergency workers from doing their jobs. So, the less looters there are, the more lives can be saved.