News-Record.com

There's not much to argue with in your editorial. BUT (big but), I agree with the mysterious lady caller about the priorities placed on "packaging" the story.

New Orleans (a place where I have lived and worked) is UNDER WATER - a noxious cesspool of the unimaginable. Gulfport and Biloxi have been all but wiped off the map. The devastation is of a biblical scale (I mean are you LOOKING at these pictures as you place them UNDER the lottery headline?). But praise be to Mike Easley, he finally got his precious lottery! And, in the wake of this latest national disaster, Governor Mike's sneaky victory is the News & Record's lead story.

John, you showed the lady "the door" to your newspaper, and she chose not to read past it. How can you blame her?

As for the other newspapers doing the very same thing, it goes back to the age-old question. If someone else jumped off a bridge, WOULD YOU? Wait. There ARE NO BRIDGES LEFT STANDING in southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

Every newspaper has a choice to make each and every day of what will be front page, above the fold and what will go below the fold. At least I believe this is the way things are worded in the newspaper business, I could be wrong.

The N&R had to make a choice. Do we run an article which has been under much controversy and has been brought to a conclusion and has not been on every news channel 24-7, or do we run more of a story that , while tragic, has been covered and is being covered 24-7 by every news channel in the country.

The N&R made their choice and that was to tell the folks what happened in Raleigh . The tragic events along the gulf coast were being given ample coverage in their view.

Agree or disagree, that is the job of the paper. In this case, the N&R made the right choice. How else would people have known what happened in Raleigh .

Now as a foot note before I am condemned for being insensitive to the situation. I was stationed at Kessler AFB during my career in the military and government service. I have many, many friends that I served with there and other places who decided to retire in Boloxi and Gulfport. At this point in time, I have heard nothing from them, all I can do is look at the pictures and pray for their safety . I shall continue to do so until I receive news that they have been spared.
I have been in war zones and have never seen anymore destruction that I am seeing on tv now. May God have mercy on these people.

I have a cousin in the writing business and he was the first to contact me this morning and opine (negatively) about the way our new lottery came to be. As I am off this week - and had the TV on in the background as I poured over bills & paperwork, I had already seen the talking heads on local stations salivating over the lottery news. I had also seen it on the Internet. My point is that our only source of news is not the newspaper. I referred "Cousin" to my commentary on this blog.

My cousin, a very intelligent self-described "liberal Democrat" with whom I often spar, opposes the lottery for many of the same reasons cited in the N&R's editorial (and, make no mistake, it was a GOOD editorial). He put the paper's choice in perspective quite eloquently: "If I'm aware of the destruction and loss of life down there, and the first thing I want to read about in the paper is still the lottery, I deserve my own special section of hell."

Couldn't have said it better myself. It is a question of priorities. The point is that maybe the placement of this headline should have been more reflective of the newspaper's editorial opinion - something people accuse John & company of anyway. The horrific disaster in New Orleans & Gulfport & Biloxi should have remained "above the fold" - especially since it is evolving into the wholescale long-term evacuation of an entire metropolitan area unparalleled since perhaps the Civil War.

Mike Easley's little "under the table" stunt would've still gotten front page coverage, but it would have been "under the fold" (where it belonged in comparrison).

I hope your friends and mine are okay, mrproduce.

And to all the future lottery winners out there . . . please consider putting something aside for the vicitims of this awful tragedy. It appears they're going to be needing help for a very, very long time.

News flash: No one's going to hell for putting the lottery story above the Katrina story on A-1. Or vice versa, for that matter.

Enactment of the lottery is the kind of seismic cultural shift that a state like North Carolina undergoes once in a generation -- if that often. You've got to go back to enactment of liquor by the drink in 1978 to find anything with as much potential to change, permanently, the way we North Carolinians live.

That doesn't mean that putting it up top was necessarily the right choice. But, except for the narcissists among us, not every difference of opinion means someone is lying or evil or otherwise a sinner. Sometimes people just disagree.

News flash back: you take great liberties with my post, Lex (not to mention a cheap shot). I gave my Cousin's take on what he considers important in terms of his own priorities . . . one that, as I watch the news footage (on a situation that is deteriorating on an hourly basis - and certainly IS a "seismic shift" for people who have lost EVERYTHING), I happen to share. Then there is the little matter of how this disaster is going to affect our ENTIRE COUNTRY.

But hey, praise Governor Mike and pass the lotto tickets!

Obviously, I hit a raw nerve. Maybe it occurred to someone before they prioritized the headlines that it wasn't the right thing to do?

I've had no strong feelings one way or the other about the lottery. I certainly think the arguments against are VERY STRONG. But it's a mute point now. According to the N&R's own editorial, Governor Mike and his pro-lottery cronies apparently lied to colleagues about closing the legislative session for good - then waited until two lawmakers were unavoidably out of town and made their move. It's politics (not to mention business as usual in Raleigh), and it probably was going to happen at some point anyway. But it doesn't make the tactics used any less dishonorable. To get this thing passed, someone did, in fact, LIE (please note that I am not taking the bait and commenting on what constitutes "evil" or being a "sinner"). What makes it so disturbing is that these lawmakers represent all of us.

"Opinions" aside, the decision about the headline makes it very clear what our state newspapers' priorities are. Call me "old-fashioned", but I hope, sometime down the road when we're facing our next "Floyd", newspapers in other states offer us more respect and consideration than our papers offered people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama today.

Due respect, but I have not seen the lotteries of Virgina and South Carolina (whose store owners on the border are now crying in their Pepsi), seismically shift the way my family members in those states are living.

The lottery has been debated in this state for 20 years. It was declared dead just last week. It's big news. Is it as monumental as what happened in Louisiana and Mississippi? No, not today. Is it the first thing that I think our readers read? Yes. Could I be wrong? Yes, but I don't think so.

OK, end of Don Rumsfeld imitation.

The lottery was newer news than the Hurricane. The flooding took up most of the time on all the newscasts. We could bring little new information to readers. Perspective, yes, history, yes. And we did. It's hardly buried on the front page. But we could bring a lot of new information to the lottery. And it is a huge story with significant impact to North Carolina readers.

We play both stories big, but at the end of the day, one had to be larger than the other. We went with the story that had the greatest local impact and wasn't all over television.

Dr. Johnson, I've spent way too much of my life in the aftermath of various hurricanes (not to mention tornadoes and ice storms). So I'll just say that as long as the lessons we're learning in NOLA (and should have learned long ago, given that hurricanes hit the U.S. EVERY SINGLE YEAR) mean that when it happens to us we get adequate food, water and National Guard staffing to the site without having to wait four days for someone to give the order, papers in other states can brief the story on page A98 for all I care.

Does anyone at the News and Record ever admit they might be wrong. Lex, I find your post full of hubris. It could only come from someone who has been in a newsroom way too long.

The hurricane damage in NOLA is biblical and a once in existence story. The lottery could have been a rail item by comparison. Look at newseum. Every paper in the nation played the photos of NOLA huge.

But you guys are the ones that "do it right" so who can argue with you.

Cheers,

Jeff

At the risk of this "veering off course" and having it shut down, I'd ask Lex what the heck he is talking about in respect to a lack of response to the hurricane areas.

National Guard troops were activated BEFORE the hurricane even hit. They were on the way THAT day! The President declared it a disaster area before the storm even hit. (Sounds like planning to me!)

Until the city of New Orleans UNEXPECTEDLY flooded the DAY AFTER the hurricane, every thing was going as planned and troops, police and everything was working as it was supposed to. (Even the IDIOT mayor of New Orleans said that during a interview on WDSU.com last night -- I heard it myself on a webcast.)

I'd point out that Lex also says "adequate." What does he expect? I have never seen ANY natural disaster where the day or two after people aren't hunting around for water or food. It's simply the way these things work. Adequate? What PLANET are you on? Do you expect a Harris Teeter to drop out of the sky in the middle of new Orleans on Day 2?

As always, Lex uses nuance to imply that somehow everything is a mess because Bush is an idiot. (He'll deny this.)

Please, Lex, spend some of your employer's time educating yourself instead ofjust infurating readers.

I really am growing tired of your pompass B.S. EVERY one of your posts is just laced with contempt. Is it any wonder that people who read your newspaper are just repulsed? This is bordering on insufferable.

Thanks Jeff. Lex, that last post of yours sank to the lowest of lows. My Mother's people herald from "down East", and I too have ridden out hurricanes AND tornados/ice storms/bad weather in my various assignments all over the country (doctors stay with, or find a way to get to, their patients in these storms).

When "Floyd" came through years ago, I thought I had seen it all. I had to put my Grandmother's footstone back into place as it had floated up out of the ground. Yet what we have seen in North Carolina does not begin to compare with what is going on in Louisiana & Mississippi.

Here's the point. Your experience is not "unique" in North Carolina. A whole lot of us have been there and done that. And we would not wish what is going on down in New Orleans on our worst enemy just so we could learn how to get a better response when our number comes up. And it will. When it does, I hope the story is not buried on page 98 when those other newspapers are reporting on us.

Yes, hurricanes pummel our shores every year. But perhaps you should be watching TV. The topography of New Orleans was a setup for disaster (for both natural and man-made reasons), and it now inhibits rescue & recovery efforts (as well as repair of the levees - as representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers have been explaining on CNN). This is a situation that is unique in our modern history in terms of scope and logistics and the application of state & national resources.

For the record, the state & federal governments that you seem to be slamming repeatedly told (begged actually) people to evacuate when Katrina became a monster. We all have lessons to learn here. Maybe it's not about the "news being newer".

Finally, you said it yourself, John. The lottery issue was DEAD. Then suddenly - through a series of less than respectable political machinations (under cover, perhaps, of the bigger news story) - we have one. The News & Record says that it does not to support it. So if you were going to put the headline first, perhaps it should have read, "Governor Sleasley Dupes State into Lottery".

Lex wrote:
"Enactment of the lottery is the kind of seismic cultural shift that a state like North Carolina undergoes once in a generation -- if that often. You've got to go back to enactment of liquor by the drink in 1978 to find anything with as much potential to change, permanently, the way we North Carolinians live."

Not only is this statement foolishly rhetorical (exactly HOW will a lottery permanently change the way North Carolinians live?), it also smacks of the typical apologetic bias of southern liberals. What exactly does he mean when he says "a state like North Carolina?" I think means a dumb, backwoods, regressive hick state that finally moved into the 20th century by enacting a lottery, right or wrong.

Let's go back to 1978, when liquor by the drink was enacted. Maybe Lex can offer us some details to support his assertion that it permanently changed the way North Carolinians live. Certainly, it made it easier to get a drink, but how significant is that in the overall scheme of things? At the very least, we should be given a theory of how the lottery will permanently change the way we live (in some SIGNIFICANT way) before we use alarmist rhetorical excess.

But most importantly, I do think it was very small minded of the paper to put the lottery in HUGE BOLD LETTERS above the hurricane tragedy. The long term effects of the hurricane will be far more than hypothetical and unexplained change due to the lottery in North Carolina.

This hurricane is the worst natural disaster to hit the United States in 100 years. The economic loss and potential loss of human life will dwarf September 11, 2001. Consider that in the past 5 years we have experienced the worst terrorist act in US history, the worst worldwide natural disaster with the Dec. 26th tsunami, and the worst hurricane to hit the US in 100 years. But the BIG BOLD LOTTERY takes the headline.

Finally, the N&R editorial stated "the state's leaders, starting with the governor, have taken the easy way out." Question- how many of these Democrat leaders (and their colleagues) did the N&R endorse in the last election, and how many do you think they will endorse in the next election, hmmm???

Regards that "GOOD" editorial opinion?

Well as least one line of it was factual staement and not more idle speculation....

The politicians gave the people what they wanted.

But wait. Isn't that what they are elected to do? Enforce the will of the people, rather than their will?

Sad thing that this issue had to be done in a rather sneaky manner, but then if those naysayers who were elected were actually DOING their jobs, it wouldn't have had to be done the manner is was would it?

Nice sideways slam at our President, Lex, but you were wrong again.
President Bush had the foresight to put relief efforts in motion BEFORE the hurricane hit. His coordination in events like this is always swift and sound, and shows his management skills.
As for the Katrina story, I doubt that there is much new that could be put in the newspaper. We've had nothing but 24/7 coverage from all of the TV news media, which is much more current than the once-daily printed news.
While Katrina is a disaster of epic proportions for the U.S., the lottery issue has more significant local interest, and details on it were not as prolific on the TV news.
Tough call for John Robinson, but it appears he did what he thought was in the best interest of the readers.

JayCee, I'm unaware of any significant steps the president took before the hurricane struck. That doesn't mean there weren't any, of course. If you've got links to documentation, by all means please share them, and if I'm wrong I'll admit it.

That said, before 72 hours had elapsed after the storm, almost the entire NO police force had been diverted from search and rescue to controlling looting. A quicker insertion of 25,000 or so NG or regular Army would have allowed them to remain focused on S&R. (To say nothing of Gulfport, Biloxi and other hard-hit areas.) Why is that significant? The overwhelming majority of disaster survivors are located within 72 hours of the disaster. After that point, the likelihood of finding people alive drops pretty precipitously.

[[What exactly does he mean when he says "a state like North Carolina?" I think means a dumb, backwoods, regressive hick state that finally moved into the 20th century by enacting a lottery, right or wrong.]]

And you'd be wrong, Mr. Spagnola, although not entirely out of the ball park. I mean that North Carolina is a "conservative" state in the sense that, like most Southern states, it is fairly slow to embrace major cultural change, for good or ill.

As for the changes wrought by liquor-by-the-drink ... it made our hospitality industry competitive with those of other states in a way that it simply hadn't been before. It meant big growth in the restaurant industry (and in great improvement in the quality of restaurants) and in the travel & tourism trade. That change, in addition to permanently changing the way of life in many of our mountain and coastal communities, has been a big part of the state's ongoing transition from its traditional manufacturing/agricultural economy.

For the record, and not that it matters, I think states are irresponsible to fund pressing and recurring spending needs, of any description, with a lottery. If something is worth a state's doing, it's worth the state's establishing a dedicated and reliable revenue stream with which to do it. I would hope that would be a position upon which liberals and conservatives alike could agree.

Yes, KT, it WAS a good editorial, and it made a lot of sense - whether you agree with the lotto premise or not. I'm not sure where I fall on that - and I don't know enough about the polls to speak on "the will of the people". But I expect "the will of the people" in this instance is not so much related to the pros or cons of the question, as it is to the ease with which they can buy a lottery ticket and have the one-in-a-trillion chance to win.

Where I do fall is on the side of ethics and openess in government. In our republic, people elect other people to represent them and to govern. As both Lex and John have conceded, this thing has been debated for YEARS. So what was the rush to get it done this year? Could it be a deflection tactic to disguise overall bad state governance?

There is a right way and a wrong way for politicians to "do their jobs". After smoozing all year, our "education governor" Mike Easely did not have the votes. The legislative session was CLOSED. As soon as enough of his opponents had left town to use his Lieutenant Governor to pull a "tie-breaker" (and under the cover of a bigger news story), the Governor & his cronies made the move. As maneuvers go, it wasn't just "a little bit sneaky". It stank.

Of course, we're beating a dead horse here, because "Education" Mike has already signed the bill. But this is a law based on a lie. If one of the Governor's goals is to lead by example . . . well, he just gave us a great example of how he does things. I wonder if his oppenents on this issue in Raleigh - totally bamboozled by all the smooth moves - will be willing to trust and work with him in the future? And what does that do for all of the other pressing issues in Raleigh that must be resolved within the parameters of the political process?

I met with Congressman Howard Coble yesterday about matters unrelated to this thread (unless you REALLY want to talk about accountability in the public sector). As an aside, I was impressed by the Congressman (having never met him). The Congressman's staffers were fielding calls right and left from constiuents with family or friends or interests in the areas ravaged by Katrina. Lex, the state and local governments BEGGED citizens in the path of this storm to GET OUT - you can care about your life or your loot in a sitation like this, but not both. People were told REPEATEDLY that search and rescue would be difficult, if not impossible, if the worst case scenario (a direct hit by the storm surge on New Orleans) happened. And I would remind you that the levees held during the storm only to unexpectedly fail afterwards. The New Orleans Police Department is facing a catastrophe unparalled in modern history (and their specialty is NOT "search and rescue"). Access to these areas is problematic - the logistics is a nightmare (thanks for telling us something we already know about the stats on finding people alive or dead after 72 hours).

I know that if it all doesn't happen right now, you are gonna take the opportunity to slam Dubya . . . but even with all of our collective resources, WE cannot just instantly drop WalMarts out of the sky - even if WE are protected and served by the Armed Forces of the United States government. So don't tell me that our government is not on . . . had not been on . . . the case.

As the gas prices rise higher and higher because of the devastation wrought by this storm (with the potential to get to 4 and 5 dollars/gallon by some reports), as local & state hospitals send rescue teams down, as home-grown emergency & skilled workers move to relieve exhausted FEMA personnel who have seen the worst, do you think the Katrina story has any "local interest" now? There's something a little bit sad about the premise that it takes gas prices (Sleasley is telling us not to drive this morning) for the paper to set its "local" priorities.

The BIG BLACK BOLD HEADLINE on the lottery yesterday was tasteless and insensitive and just a little bit disturbing. And it would be nice, just once, if this newspaper (after endorsing the boys who gave us the lottery) could admit it made a mistake.

Dr. Johnson, I've got relatives down there too, ranging from (in-law) Buddy Leach, a former gubernatorial candidate, to a lot of people not nearly as well off.

I've addressed issues relevant to storm planning and response here, here, here and here, in at least somewhat more coherent fashion than I can do in JR's comments box.

To return to the original issue of the post, however, I understand your reasons for believing that the hurricane story should have had top billing. I disagree, but more importantly, I don't attach the same moral significance to the question that you do, given that both stories got prominent A-1 display. Had that not been the case, I think we might have more to talk about, but honestly, I just don't see this particular question as that big a deal.

Thanks, Mary. I have heard from two families who happened to get to Birmingham, where they have kids. The other 6 I still have no clue. My prayers will continue for your friends and my friends as well as all the others suffering through this disaster.

I am going to withdraw from what has become a political argument instead of a discussion. The decision was made, it's done, it's over. There are much more important things to work on than to argue who was right and who was wrong. As I said in my earlier post the N&R had a choice to make and they made it. Arguing til the cow's come home will not change a dang thing.

Jim, re educating myself, that part about the president declaring a disaster area BEFORE Katrina hit? Not so much:

"Just one week ago the White House declared that a major disaster existed in Louisiana, specifically most of the areas (such as Jefferson Parish) that are now under water. Was the White House psychic about the disaster ahead? Not exactly. In fact the major disaster referred to Tropical Storm Cindy, which struck the state a full seven weeks earlier. That announcement triggered federal aid for the stricken areas, where the clean-up had been on hold for almost two months while the White House chewed things over."

I hope you don't consider this response pompous.

JayCee, my concerns about response to this emergency were not and have never been directed only, or even primarily, at the president. The slow response to this disaster reflects a failure of government -- elected officials, primarily, but also staff -- at all levels in both major parties dating back many years.

Calling this a hurricane story is like calling 9/11 a plane crash story.

Back at you mrproduce. We found one of my friends this morning (he & his family lived in Metairie - loosely speaking, a "burb" of New Orleans). They "went west" to take shelter with family members. His house is under water. His wife's job was wiped off the map. They are going to try to relocate to Dallas - to put his young daughter in school. I'm still waiting to hear from others - in Mandeville, Covington and Slidell.

Lex, (the rest of this post is a response to an e-mail you sent this morning - as well as your posts on other blogs) for GOD'S SAKE, give it a rest. I LIVED there. I worked there. I'm not stupid and I don't have to be educated about the landscape or the population. Your readers & bloggers are (by-en-large) a pretty sophisticated lot. We watch the TV, we surf the net . . . something you don't seem to get as you pontificate so contemptuously to us . . . telling us what we should think. You stepped out on some limbs this time, and they broke. It happens in a storm.

New Orleans has lived under this threat for years (it's part of the reason I decided not to practice permanently down there - even though I deeply loved the people and the area). I certainly agree that disaster planning was not what it could have been (either on the state or federal level) - but when is it ever? Especially when our political and business leaders (on both sides of the aisle and on all levels) continue to put the almighty dollar before people's lives . . . and manipulate & develop real estate right up to these fragile coastlines - which over the coming years (we're told) will be even MORE in harm's way. Have you BEEN to the coast of North Carolina lately (particularly north of Nags Head)? What was once a pristine barrier beach is an abomination - a monument to greed. I don't see Governor Easley or the crowd in Raleigh doing ANYTHING to reign this stuff in. It's "economic development" at any cost - never mind simple common sense.

I'm sure we're going to be talking about completely "re-building" New Orleans over the next weeks and months and years. And I have to ask, given what we have known for a very long time . . . and now that the disaster we all knew was coming has finally happened . . . where is the wisdom of putting all of those (poor) people, with resources so limited that they could not get out, back in "a bowl" that has proven the container cannot withstand the mixer?

It's easy to criticize the government from the cheap, air-conditioned seats - and after the fact. You pretty obviously want to turn this into a Pulitzer-winning series about what the government did not do (including Dubya - who you so obviously hold in contempt), instead of what we can do now. It's a bandwagon I expect many will jump on as conditions evolve and deteriorate in the areas destroyed by the storm. Yes, there's LOTS to learn. But what happens now, as we move forward, is a question of priorities and focus.

By the way, no one is a "moron" here (unless you want to call Fats Domino a moron - according to Drudge, he and his family are missing right now) . . . deeply misguided maybe - but NOT morons. For a journalist, you do not measure your words very carefully.

Your posts on this subject started with back-handed slams, and progressed to just plain arrogance and hubris and contempt. I'm used to it from the "journalists" in both Asheboro and Greensboro, so it doesn't bother me like it used to. The posts so far have "evolved" somewhat, but they've also remained pretty "on-point" with regards to the original post (John did start it) - as the headlines we're talking about are (1) Hurricane Katrina and (2) our new lottery.

Mary, you're reading a whole lot into what I wrote that I neither said nor implied, so I guess I didn't express myself clearly.

So, Lex, you link your OWN blogs as support for your opinion? That's like telling a lie the second time and then pointing to the first lie as proof that the second lie is the truth. You remind me of a runty little dog that consumes his own feces. You sit on your pompous, undignified, uninformed, sneering, sniveling little liberal butt and try to convince the world that is was all President Bush's fault.
Don't blame me or anyone else that you're so clueless as to what our President has done in this national emergency. Perhaps if you spent more time discovering the truth rather than lying and trying to destroy those that tell the truth you'd know more than you do now.
If you think that the entire states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana "waited" 4 days to do anything because nobody told them to, you are a blithering idiot, a compete fool, and a disgrace to your edicational institution.
You are a political looter. You take this disaster and try to use it to lie, defame, misrepresent the facts, distort, and did I mention lie? Tell the truth now, you're gleefully giggling every time you see a dead body down there so you can use it against any politician that doesn't share your views, don't you? I'll bet you masturbate while you watch our brave dead soldiers on TV in Iraq so you can rant and rave once again against our government, don't you? You're a despicable, unrepentent, scum-sucking leech, no better than the thieves in New Orleans looting what remains.
But you have the same problem they do...you have a commodity which is valueless, useless, and one which nobody will buy.
I'd give you link after link to the TRUTH so you could see how little you know about this situation, but you're too ignorant to recognize the truth when you see it. That's evident by the trash and liberal vomit you spew through your keyboard at the rest of us. And it's not my job to educate you, if you're not smart enough to do that on your own, leave the room so the adults can discuss this.
Why don't you scurry back to your filthy little rathole at "Blog On The Run" before Jerry Bledsoe comes back in here and pulls your pants down again?

It's amazing to even slightly think that the Lottery will contribute positively to our educational systems here in NC.

It's been proven time and time again that throwing money at educational issues will not resolve problems that cannot be addressed financially. And I beleive this to be the problem with most of our school systems.

If this were, why are Parochial schools able to provide quality education to students for sometimes as little as a third of the cost of publicly funded schools?

Let's face it, the funds will be earmarked for higher pay too teachers who are demoralized and anyway will be leaving our school systems by the droves as a result of students whose parents have never taught or exhibited to them good moral values, proper work ethics, and respect for your superiors. Higher pay, nice school building, will never compensate for a less than desirable workplace.

The problems with our school systems is not a money issue, but one in which many students are the product of a cultural acceptance of bad behavior.

In addition, unfortunately, the Lottery will prey on the poor who will divert their limited resources to buying tickets in the hopes of immediate dividends. As an academic once said, those that play the numbers are "mathematically challenged."

I believe the News & Record goofed with respect to headlining the Lottery instead of the Hurricane. However, I don't feel it did so because it leans "Left" as the caller indicated to JRobinson. I might note that the states in the Southeast who've gone with a Lottery tend to vote Republican locally as well as nationally. My observation is the numbers game is alive and well in the "Bible Belt."

JRobinson, good luck with picking headliners, and always remember what Ricky Nelson sang to us back long long time ago, "..can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself."

Lex, HONESTLY, I don't think I'm misreading anything. I've checked out the blog posts you've referred us all to, and I see you calling names and using terms like "ass" and "sociopath" and "narcissists" (that one - in this thread - was pretty pointedly directed at me) and "morons" and "racists" and "stupid son of a bitch". For a journalist who wants to encourage the free exchange of opinions & ideas, you certainly do a lot to discourage it. One has to have a pretty thick skin to disagree with you.

Were it not for the Grace of God, I would be in New Orleans right now. I had seriously considered a last-minute trek to a medical conference last week - one that did not end until Saturday. But I was just back from a trip "over the pond" with my Mom and seriously jet-lagged . . . then I got a nasty bug. Had I gone down, I would have stayed at the Hyatt (the one next to the Dome with all the windows blown out) - and I likely would not have gotten out of town (since the airports shut down as the storm approached). I see the footage of this place I know and love - as well as the faces of those who live there - and I'm just numb.

Then I read one of your posts, and I snap out of it.

And after JayCee's post, I'm really, Really, REALLY awake.

I have been keeping one eye on CNN for the last few hours as I plowed through paperwork. Former Presidents Clinton and Bush (41) have been appointed by Dubya to help raise private money to help Katrina's victims, and were interviewed together this afternoon. During the interview, both Slick Willie and Grandpa 41 pretty vigorously defended the Federal relief effort (not allowing the talking head to cut them off). News reports confirm that over EIGHTY PERCENT of New Orleans was evacuated BEFORE the storm hit (a wondrous feat accomplished in a very short period of time). FEMA has been working around the clock. The sickest patients in the medical centers are almost, if not completely, evacuated now (this while under sniper fire from their own fellow citizens). The Army Corps of Engineers is trying frantically to plug to levees. Both former Presidents pointed out that a series of events evolved and moved to shape this disaster . . . first just as the storm hit (a mysterious "puff of air" from the mainland diverted the eyewall east and slightly weakened the hurricane) . . . and then after the storm had passed (the unexpected failure of the the levees) . . . that NO ONE (not even you) anticipated.

Well, there was that one guy at Scientific American . . .

As is often the case, many, many people were comfortatble and complacent and in total denial - they did not take the threat seriously (the talking heads don't seem to be so willing to admit that). I ask you, what if Katrina had not turned out to be a monster? We'd no doubt be having people complaining and whining (and maybe even suing) over being forced out of their homes unnecessarily.

President Clinton added that people were sent to the Dome as a last resort to save lives in the event of a direct hit - and that most of those lives were saved. But then the levees failed (keep in mind the levees were only designed to withstand a Category 3 Storm surge - and that's hardly Dubya's fault). Those residents within the projected landfalls of this Category 5 storm who did not heed the warnings or the "mandatory evacuation order" (for whatever reason) are now in dire straights.

There is no doubt that our country - all of us - will MOBILIZE TO HELP the vicitms of this storm in whatever ways we can (for instance, there is a really cool movement organizing on the Web for people all over the country to offer their homes and rooms to storm victims). We will, no doubt, learn a great deal about disaster response (including hopefully something about individual responsibility and fuel conservation). Maybe we'll finally spend the money that might help correct the geographical factors that led to this catastrophe. But I, for one, think the twenty-twenty hindsight and second-guessing and finger pointing (there's one pundit on CNN trying as hard as he can to play the race card) diverts from the mission at hand.

So does putting the story under the lottery headline. And Lex, consider this. If history is any indicator, this "dedicated and reliable revenue stream" that you say Governor Mike's new lottery (translation: slush fund) will create is going to be financed (mostly) by the poor & middle class.

So Lex, you stated that my remark that you considered a "state like North Carolina" to be dumb, backwoods, regressive hick state was not entirely out of the ball park and went on to explain that it was because North Carolina is a "conservative" state in the sense that, like most Southern states, it is fairly slow to embrace major cultural change, for good or ill.

There you have it. Equating conservatism with dumb, backwoods, regressive hicks. No bias, here, right? You proved my point exactly. We're dumb, conservative hicks down here. Unlike "a state like New York" or "Massachusettes". We're always behind the curve here. Perhaps the truth is conservatism is the doctrine of a lesson learned, and liberalism is the doctrine of smug rebellion. Maybe conservatism is in fact the more progressive of the two philosophies.

Regarding the impact of liquor by the drink, you cited a number of generalizations, yet offered no facts to support your thesis.

Finally, lest I be misunderstood, I have no strong feelings on the lottery either way, and I'm all for liquor by the drink. But I take offense at your characterization of the lottery issue and the people of this state. Typical paternal, liberal apologetics for the ignorance of the rest of us unenlightened morons.

Thank all you wonderful people that trashed the Amazing Lex. Everything you said bad about him I agree with. Wish he stay on his on Lex Files.
Lex why did not the governor and mayor of NO do all the things you are blaming Bush for????

Doug: The governor and mayor of New Orleans don't control FEMA, which is supposed to be the command-and-control agency for disaster response. Beyond that, don't accuse me of saying things I didn't say. As I've said on my own blog and in comments on other people's, the federal, state AND local governments, both parties, elected officials and career staff alike, share responsibility for the totality of the mess on the Gulf Coast.

Mary, the people I trashed were ignorant pundits, not people engaged in debate directly with me on my blog. Let's not distort here. I'm sorry if you thought I was calling YOU a narcissist; I was describing a trait -- the Manichean-division world view -- that is one of the defining characteristics of narcissists generally. If I'd intended to call you a narcissist, I'd've done so straightforwardly. Also, you completely missed my point about the lottery: I *don't* consider it a reliable, dedicated revenue stream, particularly compared with sales- and income-tax revenue.

Sam: Straw man much? I was born here. I'm 45 years old and have lived here for all but 18 months of my life, despite having had plenty of opportunities to go elsewhere. I love this state. If I thought the state was so backward, AND if I were as liberal as you think, why would I have stayed? I embrace its general reluctance to change; that's why I said "for good or ill." No, I didn't document the facts I recited about the effects of liquor by the drink -- I thought they were pretty obvious to anyone who has lived here during the period. Am I in fact wrong about them?

JayCee: The posts to which I link contain no lies. Beyond that, I the tone and substance of your last comment say a lot more about you than it does about me. Have a nice weekend.

Mary: Upon reflection, I apologize for the narcissism comment.

I tend to be pretty straightforward, but not everyone is. Consequently, I don't always realize that something I intend as a general observation is sometimes interpreted as a veiled but direct criticism. That's not an excuse or an explanation; rather, it's a communications failure on my part, and as someone who's supposed to communicate for a living, I ought to do better. I promise to try.

Lex,
I was not born here, even though I have lived here most of my life. Still, I noticed the chip on the shoulder of many like you in North Carolina early on.

There always seems to be some urge to convince everyone else that NC is not so bad because there are progressives/liberals here that are trying to change the rest of the dumb redneck conservative hicks. It usually starts when you enter Chapel Hill, and meet some people from the Northeast, and suddenly you feel that to impress them you have to distance yourself from your roots. After all, the cool smart people don't want Jesse Helms voting hicks at their parties.

Because I am not from here originally, I never had that mentality and could look at the state more objectively. There is good and bad, but like many southerners, you equate liberalism with sophistication. Hence, we have become more sophisticated when we pass a lottery, right or wrong. Or when we pass liquor by the drink, we show that we have finally arrived in the modern world. It may actually be that these are modernizing developments, but that is not the point.

The point is that too often liberals start from the premise that we in NC need to "catch up" with the rest of the US (and consequently, the US needs to catch up with Europe) in order to show how big we are. So we end up speaking perjoratively (e.g., "a state like North Carolina") about NC.

I have to disagree that the scope of the change caused by LBTD in 1979 is readily apparent. Your original post made it seem like a huge transformative event that had a big impact on people's daily lives (as you also implied the lottery would), but there really is no evidence of such a sea change. And if it was such a change, how much farther do we have to go before you no longer feel intellectually inferior to your liberal buddies up North?

Many of those in the media are not that different than those in academia. They are the smart, enlightened ones, and everyone else is just wrong but doesn't know it. Your purpose is to save us from ourselves and all our ignorance. You hope that someone from the NY Times will read your stories and say "that Lex may be from the south, but at least he's trying to educate all those hicks".

Maybe I've overstated the case against you personally, because I don't know you. But I have no doubt that such people do exist here in NC and are dominant in the media and politics.

Finally, you essentially admitted that you were implying that conservatives were dumb hicks with your in the "ball park" comment yesterday, so it's a little late now to back track from the exposure of your true colors.

As the great Brian Wilson sings, "Love and Mercy" to you and your friends tonight. In the larger scheme of things, there are many other problems in the world to worry about.

Samuel Spagnola

Apology accepted. I note your "parent company" (Landmark Communications) really stepped up to the plate with the substantial donation to the Red Cross:):):)

I suppose the only question really left regarding the the lottery is, "What's it going to be . . . Powerball or Megamillions?"

Heavy sigh.

Sam, as you acknowledge, your posts make abundantly clear that you indeed do not know the first thing about me. Please think about that before you presume to know where I'm coming from in the future. Thanks, and have a nice weekend.

Suffice it to say, one should choose their words more carefully lest someone else get the wrong impression. Truce.

Love and Mercy

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

Interesting when you THEN see this:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015