Yesterday I saw the fattest sheriff I've ever seen in my life. I kind of wonder if he just shoots people in the back b/c he didn't look like he could catch you if you walked away at a steady saunter. It did reassure me about the food I was getting. There are no grocery stores open in New Orleans. You have to go to Metarie and I haven't felt like it yet. That means I've been eating out a lot. Most of the gas stations and corner stores have some sort of food, gumbo or beans and rice, so that's what I've been eating. I figured if that sheriff was eating the gumbo it can't be that bad.
One thing I'm finding interesting about New Orleans is the number of Latinos. I don't know how many were here before Katrina but I'm pretty sure a lot of them came after. Most of the Contractors license plates are Texas plates. There are Latinos waiting for work on a lot of corners but if you don't get there soon they're almost all gone. One more American city is being built by undocumented Latino labor.
You see some signs of resentment about it. There is some derogatory graffiti here and there. There also T-Shirts at all the tourist shops that say "FEMA Find Every Mexican Available". I've talked to a couple guys who weren't working and they told me there were problems with getting paid. Contractors won't pay them at the end of the day or will threaten to call INS.
I'm trying to get into contact with Legal Aid in New Orleans to see if I can spend some of my volunteer time there to help these guys. It makes you mad.

Bush's plan of giving a big contract to the Halliburton subsidiary KBR has really damaged the local economy so far as I can tell. Instead of the local people being able to come in and do the contracting work for their neighbors and hire local people a bunch of Texans came in with Texas labor or undocumented workers and make a bundle while the locals struggle.
A lot of the local people I talk to say that Texas has made a lot of money off the whole thing and that was Bush's intention all along. I don't know if that's true. It seems like a pretty crafty plot for Bush to think through. It is true that FEMA gave a lot of people money to spend on Texas hotels and at Texas business, helped Texas employers hire the best evacuees at lower wages b/c of the competition between the evacuees, gave the contracts to a Texas company, and didn't do anything comparable in New Orleans.