Chocolate baby!

Here we go again. It’s Monday and I’m beat from a weekend of chain-gang style labor in my yard, but it’s a tired with a great sense of satisfaction. There is so much more to do, but it will have to wait.

So I have to say a bit about the New Orleans Mayoral race. Much like the rest of the country, I was shocked that Ray Nagin not only won, but by a fair amount over his opponent. I say shocked because for a while I was placing faith in a place I had no business placing it, in the ability of people to open their eyes and recognize truth. Even with his ‘constituency’ largely still sponging off of other people in other cities, Nagin was able to pull himself up and maintain his grip on the lives of those trying to rebuild the Big Easy.

Just so we’re clear on this: I don’t hate Ray Nagin. I don’t think he’s an evil man. But I do recognize that he’s largely inept when it comes to leading a city; and by that I mean he’s got the blood of thousands on his hands. His mistakes during Katrina put him in the hot seat on the national stage, and allowed him to show his true colors. When pushed, the once successful cable television executive drew himself up and delivered a diatribe that would have cost any white man his political career.

Still unapologetic, he smirks and banters with reporters, the veritable cat that ate the canary. But now he’s had a taste of fame, national fame, and that’s a drug not easily kicked. In other words I expect we’ll all be hearing much more from the newly re-elected mayor of New Orleans.

I also wanted to highlight for you a bit of his outlook on those he chooses to lead. When asked what he would do if the business owners in New Orleans who threatened to move away if he was re-elected made good on their promise, he said this:

"Business people are predators. If the economic opportunities are here, they're going to stay. If not, they're going to leave," he said. "God bless 'em,

Now, isn’t that a great start to another term as mayor? Your city is in rags, few have returned to rebuild, and you begin your term by calling those who’s taxes pay for your private car ‘predators’ and say that you don’t care if businesses leave your city. If this is, in fact, his true outlook, I predict dire times for not just the 9th ward, but the whole of the Crescent City.

I’m just glad I had a chance to see it before he began destroying it.