Reply #28: You do write well.

[pacalo]

I have to disagree about the characterization of Louisiana in several regards to provide a better understanding.

From Baton Rouge to the southern-most parishes, we have a wealth of industry that provide good jobs. In fact, our state provides a major portion of the nation's refinery & production of petroleum. We have the best schools in the state in my parish due in part to the industry tax revenues.

The poorest population, which depends on agricultural industries, lives north of Baton Rouge.

The city of New Orleans, once a thriving hubble of business, has gone downhill since the late '70s. Canal Street no longer has department stores like D.H. Holmes, Godchaux's, Maison Blanche, Krauss, & Rubenstein's, possibly due to the opening of a large shopping mall in a nearby city, Metairie.

Other businesses that once provided tax revenues to the city, such as Shell, located in the large building called "One Shell Square" near the Mississippi waterfront, relocated to Houston.

New Orleans has one of the largest & busiest ports in the world. It is the 5th-largest port in the United States based on volume of cargo handled, second-largest in the state after the Port of South Louisiana, and 12th-largest in the U.S. based on value of cargo. The Port of South Louisiana, also based in the New Orleans area, is the world's busiest in terms of bulk tonnage, and, when combined with the Port of New Orleans, it forms the 4th-largest port system in volume handled.

One of Mary Landrieu's most sought-after goals for Louisiana has been to get our state its equal share of the oil & gas (Louisiana's prime natural resouces) revenues that have been shared with the entire nation. Louisiana and other energy-producing states have tried for more than 50 years to get an equitable share of revenues produced from oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though the Gulf of Mexico produces 30 percent of U.S. domestic oil generating up to $7 billion in oil and gas revenues every year, the state received less than 1 percent of that money, or about $32 million in 2005.

The Blanche DuBois connotation was cute, but I believe our state has carried its load.