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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
The best of blog journalism
As many 3WN readers know I like the Rude Pundit. He's crass, profane, foul-mouthed and, well, rude. He's also damn funny and hates all the right people. He is also originally from New Orleans and over the last couple weeks has been putting up posts about his trip back there and the state of the city four months after Katrina. Now maybe part of it is the juxtaposition of some straight and heartfelt reporting in the middle of his otherwise caustic blog, but those posts are among the best blog reporting I've ever read. You can read them here. The top post, today at least, is a gross but enjoyable dissertation on the end of Tom DeLay followed by a takedown of Sam Alito, both of which are much more typical of RP's work. But after getting a good laugh out of those scroll to the bottom and start there and read the daily posts in order. No jokes, no rudeness, just a very moving account of how dire the situation there was and still is.
He hadn't been able to get out before the storm and he and his family rode it out before being taken to the I-10 overpass by someone with a small boat. "We were lucky because we had food and water up there. But it was horrible, man, horrible." He talked about shitting and pissing in front of other people, about old people dying around him. "I got two kids with me, six and ten, and they wanna know what's gonna happen. I wanna cry, but I can't cry, 'cause if they see their father cry, then they're gonna know everything ain't gonna be alright." He shook his head at the barge and walked away.His last entry includes a picture that could almost sum up the whole tragedy--both an example of the dispassionate regimentation needed to deal with such an overwhelming disaster and the small scale pain that was inflicted a thousand times over.
"Possible body." What could be sadder than that?
I hope someone remembers this series when the 2006 blog awards roll around.
