06 November 2003

Not so easy anymore

[source, source]

On July 22, not yet three months into his administration, [C. Ray Nagin] the new mayor [of New Orleans] ordered a lightning raid on the city’s Taxicab Bureau, arresting more than 80 employees and cabbies (including his own cousin) on bribery and related charges, and shutting the agency down. Its head was led out of city hall in handcuffs. When Lilliam Regan, the director of the city agency that oversees the Taxicab Bureau, called a press conference that afternoon to defend her workers, Nagin’s men walked in front of the TV cameras, told Regan to pack up her things and get out of city hall. She was fired, and later arrested.

Ooooh, that’s gotta hurt.

Nobody expected the political neophyte to be so forceful, and so soon. Last Monday’s blitzkrieg of the Taxicab Bureau has made Nagin the No. 1 topic of conversation all over town (“There’s definitely bloodlust to see more city officials handcuffed,” says one observer), and shot the new mayor’s popularity through the roof. [emphasis added]

Sweeeeeet.

Nagin has also endorsed Bobby Jindal, a Repulican, for governor. Apparently Nagin isn’t in to fooling around with half measures.

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Lazarus watch

Enter Stage Right, an e-journal where liberty, individualism and capitalism aren’t bad words, is back online.

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Just who do those voters think they are?

[source, source]

The people of Richmond, VA—58% of whom are black—are not allowed to vote for their own mayor. (They have a city council member who acts as figurehead mayor while a city manager runs the government.) On yesterday’s ballot was a proposition that would allow them to do so, a proposition supported by nearly every former mayor, black and white. The only opposition came from currently elected black politicians like the acting mayor and a powerful state senator, Henry Marsh.

The proposition passed with an astonishing 80% of the vote, and it carried every council district, including the majority black districts. So what is the reaction of the black elected officials who represent these voters?

Sen. Marsh predicts a “race war” in Richmond if direct democracy is “forced” upon them. […]

There is universal agreement that the city government is incompetent and corrupt. One councilmember just left for the federal pen and another is currently under indictment for bribery. The only answer from the black Democrats running this once-proud city is to say “You must keep us crooks in power because we’re black! And if you don’t…watch out.”

Of course, one reason that is done is because it works, as it just did in Philadelphia.

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