Did anyone see Comedy Relief last night?

I have a friend who goes down to NOLA for virtually every college break -- all 110 pounds of her -- to volunteer with an organization that guts these houses, removes toxic chemicals and harmful molds, and repairs them. They don't leave them in working condition, just so they are indefinitely protected from condemnation and demolition.

The sad fact is that it costs very little per-home to do this; all it would take is the govt (any government -- even the city of Charlottesville, Virginia could do this) to pay $5.15 an hour to people who want to help, and to pay the tiny bit of overhead it costs to house these kids and feed them. They live in abandoned schools and warehouses and get supplies shipped in, but the work they do is so compelling, and so tangibly rewarding that they can handle living in utter squalor, surrounded by nothing but broken homes and broken lives.

The people-power is there. But it goes to waste if no one will fund it.

I'll try and get you the name of the organization. You might want to check it out.

Great work!  It's nice to see pictures from on the ground.

Just a suggestion that getting a portable light would really help your video quality.  Here's a light that can run off a cigarette lighter, but I'd recommend getting a battery pack & cig lighter charger, too, for a total cost of $125.

While it's always good to see some national attention paid to Congressional races in Louisiana by progressives, as Tim Tagaris noted in one of his first posts, having an outsider parachute in to provide instant analysis on local races can be hazardous. While there is no question that incumbent William Jefferson is ethically compromised, his oppenent Karen Carter is far from pristine. Ms. Carter's father is a long-time New Orleans political operative and businessman whose success has been surrounded by some ethical issues of his own. Today's Times Picayune http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/ind ex.ssf?/base/news-4/1163919390279090.xml &coll=1 raises questions about Ms. Carter's legal work while a sitting member of the Louisiana Legislature. Ms. Carter has made Mr. Jefferson's legal woes the centerpiece of her campaign. That has attracted national attention. But, the facts are that she is no grassroots candidate. She is part of the New Orleans political same political establishment that gave the Second District Congressman Jefferson. My point here is that the Second District race in Louisiana is further proof that choices are often more complex than sometimes appreciated.