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Col. Ahmed Saddam, commander of the 6th Iraqi Army Engineers, shares in dance with his Louisiana National Guard partners from the 225th Engineer Brigade, during a Mardi Gras themed celebration on Camp Liberty, March 7. Courtesy photo. BAGHDAD – U.S. Soldiers with the 225th Engineer Brigade didn’t get enough of Mardi Gras on the actual holiday — so they celebrated two weeks late with their Iraqi engineer partners here, March 7.“Engineer Call,� a monthly social intended to bring both U.S. and Iraqi Army Engineers together in a casual atmosphere, aims at forging a strong relationship between both groups. This month’s...

NEW ORLEANS – One of two suspects arrested in connection with the shooting of seven people on the Uptown parade route Tuesday was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, according to New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley. That led many to wonder why the suspect was on or around the parade route if he was being monitored by the courts.

Toddler among seven people gunned down as New New Orleans Mardi Gras parade descends into violence Seven people were gunned down in a hail of bullets as a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade descended into violence. Witnesses described scenes of chaos in the Garden District as people ran for cover. One of the victims was seen dragging himself along the ground, screaming for help. Police said the people who were shot were a 20-month-old toddler, three men aged 50, 33 and 20, two women 20 and 17 and a 15-year-old boy. Wounded: People help one of the victims who was...

NEW ORLEANS – A Mardi Gras parade erupted into chaos on Fat Tuesday when a series of gunshots struck seven people, including a toddler. The child was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said. The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. A stream of truck floats that follow the parade were passing by when gunfire broke out. "It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a limousine company manager. She...

The Day After Fat Tuesday February 21st, 2009 by Matthew Warner The day after Fat Tuesday begins with suffering and self-sacrifice for many people…suffering from a hangover and a sacrificing of much needed sleep in order to make it to work on time. Somehow, I think many of us might be missing the point. For many, Fat Tuesday (English for Mardi Gras) seems to be just another reason to stay out late, drink heavily, expose ourselves, and commit all types of RAI (Random Acts of Immorality). And somehow it’s all excused because hey… it’s Mardi Gras!Nobody likes to poop on a...

NEW ORLEANS – A Mardi Gras parade erupted into chaos on Fat Tuesday when a series of gunshots struck six people, including an infant. The infant was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said. The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. Hundreds of truck floats that follow the parade were passing when gunfire broke out.

HAMMOND, La., Feb. 24, 2009 – Louisiana National Guard members serving in Iraq had some traditional Fat Tuesday fun today when a support group from their home state sent the Mardi Gras revelry to them. A Louisiana National Guard member gives Mardi Gras beads to Iraqi children, Feb. 24, 2009. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Okay, Louisianans and Mardi Gras enthusiasts everywhere, time to spread the love!" exclaimed Greta M. Perry, Louisiana state coordinator for the support group Soldiers' Angels. "We have Louisiana Guardsmen who have been in Iraq for a while and could use some...

NEW ORLEANS – Six people, including a one-year-old boy, were injured on the parade route in a shooting on Fat Tuesday, according to spokesman EMS spokesman Jeb Tate.

Between the end of Bennett Mornings and the beginning of the Laura Ingraham show, XM166 (America Right) ran AP Radio News with John Belmont. The last or next to last item was a live report with a female AP reporter at the Mardi Gras by the name of Foster. Belmont asked how parade participants could show up at 6 am and last till midnight. Foster laughed and responded that she had to get up at 4am at the hotel so that they could, "...put on our blackface and Afro wigs."

New Orleans Mardi Gras To Push Through Despite Hard Times ShareThis New Orleans, LA (AHN) - Despite the recession, New Orleans is determined to push through with the Mardi Gras this week. According to Mary Beth Romig of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, downtown hotels reported more than 90 percent occupancy for the weekend. More than a big party, the Mardi Gras is a business for the city as the yearly Lent event bring over 700,000 visitors who spend more than $ 1 billion in the city. However, participants must plunk in also their investments. Members of...

Lisa Mount right, and M.K. Wegmann second from right, wear costumes about Super Tuesday on Mardi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. Carnival revelers were greeted with warm weather for Fat Tuesday Straight from the Mardi Gras parade, 'Glo' Gloria Cunningham signs into the Democratic Caucus at the Town Hall in Crested Butte, Colo. with her costume on Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008. Two revelers wear costumes like senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on Mardi Gras in the French Quarter of New Orleans Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008 R.M. Elfer left, and Judy Weaver wear...

A traditional Shrove Tuesday pancake race in Britain was tossed off the menu due to overbearing health and safety regulations... The fun event in Ripon, northern England, is an annual Shrove Tuesday charge along a city street by schoolchildren, choristers and office workers, flipping pancakes as they go. But the organisers felt forced to scrap the merriment this year due to the sheer cost of complying with regulations. Insurance risk assessments and paid medical staff... "The main issue is the cobbled street that people could slip on. This stupidity never happened previously. It's a shame these issues stop the children...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The son of a Mississippi political leader was killed by a float in one of the city's Mardi Gras parades. Joseph P. ``Jody'' Compretta Jr., 39, was pronounced dead at the scene after being run over during the Krewe of Endymion parade on Saturday, police said. Compretta had been riding on the second section of the three-part Endymion captain's float, Captain Eddy's S.S. Endymion. Police said witnesses told investigators that riders had to disembark from the rear float sections when it approached the Superdome near the end of the parade route. As Compretta got off, the...

Butcher Timmy Guidry, right, holds down the pig before butchering it during La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns Saturday Feb. 2, 2008, in St. Martinville, La. 'The boucherie is so important to our culture,' said Denise Leger, 34, a Cajun Catholic from New Iberia who helped her uncle butcher the pig. (AP Photo/Brad Kemp)ST. MARTINVILLE, La. - Far from the Carnival balls, parades and raucous crowds of New Orleans, Cajuns in St. Martinville held their last "bon temps" before Lent in a far different fashion: with a grand boucherie, or slaughtering of a pig. Hundreds of people watched at least part...

This Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday otherwise known as Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday and if you come from Britain Pancake Day. Though all of these names are completely different celebrations and events they also signal one thing the next day is the start of lent. Many years ago in countries considered as Christian countries this meant 40 days of fasting and praying so the day before was the time to eat up all the rich fatty foods before this time of obstaying. Pancakes are ideal foods to be consumed on Shrove Tuesday as they contain fat and eggs which were forbidden...

  Enjoy the Super Bowl as we look forward to Super Tuesday and Mardi Gras  SUPER BOWL Site: University of Phoenix Stadium - Glendale, AZ Date: February 3, 2008 Kick-off: 6:30 p.m. EST Network: FOX  Radio: Westwood One  Home Team:  New England Patriots  Away Team:  New York Giants  Halftime Performance:  Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers  Referee:  Mike Carey     A young man was very excited because he just won a ticket to the Super Bowl. His excitement lessened as he realized his seat was in the back of the stadium. As he searched the rows ahead of him for a better...

Amid news that, in preparation for Brazil's Carnival celebrations, the government will be handing out millions of free condoms, Reuters indulges in some editorializing: Recife city also plans to distribute morning-after contraceptive pills -- a move that has angered the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.The church opposes Brazil's much lauded anti-AIDS campaign on the grounds that it promotes contraception.Wait a minute. How exactly does the morning-after pill prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS? That's right, it does not. Therefore, the distrubtion of morning-after pills can in no way be taken as being part of an "anti-AIDS campaign." Furthermore, the church does...

In the French Quarter, crowds jammed sidewalks from Rampart to Jackson Square as the beloved pooch parade, the Mystic Krewe of Barkus, rolled to the theme "Indiana Bones and the Raiders of the Lost Bark." Before the parade, hundreds gathered for several hours at the pre-parade "Pawty," enjoying music, food and admiring costumed dogs and themed floats.

MARINE FORCES RESERVE, New Orleans (Jan. 7, 2008) -- Members of a local Mardi Gras organization gave an overview presentation of its group at force theater here Jan. 7. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, one of many krewes taking part in Mardi Gras festivities here, talked about parts of its history, gave explanations of characters in its parade, and even gave out trinkets during the hour-long presentation. The krewe, which has over 500 members, started parading in 1909, with only marchers, instead of the elaborate floats of the present day. The krewe’s historian, Clarence A. Becknell, explained many...

New Orleans Police said Wednesday they were investigating the second murder in the last 12 hours and fourth shooting in as many hours. According to Officer Garry Flot, an NOPD spokesman, the incident happened at 7 a.m. in the 7900 block of Olive Street in Girt Town. Second District officers found the victim, a 40-year-old man, lying in the street with several gun shot wounds to his body. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had not developed any suspect or established a motive as of yet. The victim's name is being withheld pending notification of family...

Hundreds mourn Joe Cain Monday, February 19, 2007 By DAVID FERRARA Staff Reporter Covered from head to toe in funeral black and huddled in a corner against the Church Street Graveyard gates, Marilyn Harris and Abigail Reeves waited for the Merry Widows. They were the first to arrive, around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, three hours before 20 anonymous women would slink into the cemetery to grieve. Reeves had invited Harris, her friend of 50 years who lives in Houston, to experience Mobile's homage to Joe Cain. "We're gonna have fun today," Reeves said. "And out of respect for Joe, we're gonna...

Politics reigns at D.C. Mardi GrasBy Bruce Alpert and Bill Walsh Sunday, February 11, 2007 A sizable segment of the Louisiana political establishment is at the Washington Hilton this weekend for the Mystick Krewe of Louisianians' annual Mardi Gras celebration. **SNIP** Silence on Katrina still drawing notice At the House Democratic retreat on Feb. 4, President Bush was asked by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., why he didn't mention Hurricane Katrina in his State of the Union speech. Bush replied, according to Thompson's Chief of Staff Lanier Avant, that he didn't say anything about the national parks either, even though he...

NEW YORK -- Look out, America: You may be able to watch the "greatest free show on Earth" without getting off your sofa next year. In a first, Mardi Gras 2007 may play out on live television before a national audience, along the lines of the annual Parade of Roses, according to a firm hired by the city of New Orleans to seek sponsors for the city's signature event. The move could bring a mother lode of new money to defray the costs of throwing the party but also threatens to ignite the ire of Carnival traditionalists, who have long...

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina is still overwhelmingly present in New Orleans today. Such an event should at least serve as a point of reflection not only about the city’s physical but also its moral devastation.With this in mind, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) through its America Needs Fatima campaign is asking members to join “Remember Katrina” – a massive crusade of protest and reparation for the terrible insults to God and His Mother, Mary Most Holy seen during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Many openly claim that a return to...

Primary, Carnival on track to clash Mobile officials horrified by bill that would put 2008 presidential primary on Fat Tuesday Wednesday, April 19, 2006 By DAN MURTAUGH Staff Reporter Mobile County officials said it would be a logistical nightmare if Alabama's 2008 presidential primary fell on Fat Tuesday, as a bill just out of the Legislature proposes. "Oh, it's going to be awful," said Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis. "There's no practical way we can conduct an election on Mardi Gras Day." The bill, which would move Alabama's presidential primary from the first Tuesday in June to the first...

New Orleans: A Tale of Two CitiesBy Thomas DrakeCatholics do a Rosary Walk downtown New OrleansIt was early December and many old friends were around the table in lively conversation after months of being scattered across America as part of the "Katrina Diaspora." Stories of personal adventures and misadventures, loss and separation from family and friends, were bantered back and forth. Everyone had just returned from the First Saturday devotions at St. Patrick's in downtown New Orleans. The devotions had helped put these dramatic events in a more spiritual perspective. At a certain moment, the conversation turned to the topic...

AN expected crowd of 500,000 people have been gathering roadside at the route for this year's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in Sydney. They can expect to see Kate Moss dancers snorting `cocaine', a spoof of gay-cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain and `friends' of the apparently gay-friendly Dick Cheney. And of course there will be the essential lampoon of Prime Minister John Howard. The parade is the culmination of a month of festivities celebrating gay pride and thousands are set to march – or to feature in the 120 floats – with this year's event having a fairytale theme. Captain...

Mardi Gras in Iraq you say? That's right, who better to pull it off than a bunch of cajuns from the Louisiana National Guard! We had a parade and everyone was out there to watch the floats, catch beads, and have a good time...just another event that made soldiers feel more at home. We were even given the opportunity to drink a couple of beers, yes real beer...courtesy of the great folks at Budweiser! The photos are a combination of the parade and the beer drinking in the DFAC afterwards.http://www.armychic256bde.com/id42.html

Associated Press Writer John Porretto grew up in New Orleans, and after a 20-year absence, moved back to oversee the AP's coverage of Hurricane Katrina. This week, for the first time, he rode on a Mardi Gras float. Here's his account. NEW ORLEANS — Hands that for months have folded in prayer, picked through debris and wiped away tears for lost loved ones waved frantically. "Throw me something, mister!" people cried, as Endymion, New Orleans' largest Mardi Gras krewe, or parade organization, turned onto Napoleon Avenue on Sunday night. It was just the way I remembered it as a kid...

I'm so happy to see the extensive coverage of Mardi Gras in New Orleans on FOX, MSNBC and CNN. I hope some will now realize that there is more to this celebration than Bourbon Street, boobs and beads.

Alright, who's going out tonight? Where are you going? What will you be doing? Does your mother know? Remember, Allahtm hates costumes like this, so Bedazzle your bikini, celebrate Catholicism, and flip the bird in a generally eastward direction! According to internet sources:In the Christian calendar, Shrove Tuesday is the English name for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which in turn marks the beginning of Lent. In many solidly Roman Catholic countries in Europe and the Americas, this is the last day of Carnival. In some historically Francophone places it is Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday; the most...

Good morning Troops! Honoring and Thanking our Military for the fabulous rescue efforts in New Orleans. You're covering us on the Homefront and in the arena. We watched your heroic rescues during Katrina. We watch you in the theater of Iraq. We see you in the air. We see you digging out human lives from under acres of mud. We see you deployed and we see you come home. To the Best Armed Forces in the World, THANK YOU TROOPS.

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 24 — For a long time I hated Mardi Gras, and tried to flee the city in those weeks.... Bret Johnston, 4, waved as his father, David Johnston, held him on a ladder to watch the Excalibur parade in Metairie. It was the opposite of what made New Orleans beguiling, or so it seemed to me: loud and raucous, the city's ritual self-abasement enforced mass jollity. The workaday New Orleans, underpopulated, green and quiet, was best in its absolute regard for individual states of joy or gloom. For years I failed to see the point, a distaste...

Organisers of a mardi gras party say ticket sales have soared since church groups complained of drunk and lewd behaviour.Co-ordinators of the mardi gras in Muncie, Indiana, report calls for tickets from as far as Chicago and Cincinnati. It comes after local pastor John Tyner appeared on network TV to discuss local faith-based objections to the event. Event coordinator Cheryl Crowder told the Star Press: "There's no way we could pay for that exposure." Tyner, pastor of Tabernacle of Praise Church, said he knew national publicity of the event might boost attendance. But he said local ministers were still committed...

I was born on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans so you can't get more New Orleanian than me. The failures of government during and after Hurricane Katrina were at every single level. Last year, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and the mayors of New Orleans and surrounding parishes had a trial run with Hurricane Ivan. It was a disaster even though the storm did turn eastward. Gov. Blanco especially blew it then and she blew it this time when the city of my birth was demolished. Mayor Nagin sent thousands of people to the Superdome and the Convention Center knowing that...

New Orleans -- The first of the major Mardi Gras parades with marching bands, brightly decorated floats and flying plastic beads rolled down New Orleans' streets Saturday, greeted by small but celebratory crowds. Despite the widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina, officials decided to allow a scaled-back Mardi Gras celebration this year. New Orleans parades, put on by private groups, were restricted to one corridor to help cut the cost of police protection and trash pickup. Five parades rolled back-to-back in New Orleans on Saturday under cloudy damp skies through neighborhoods left mostly unscathed by the Aug. 29 storm. More were...

Am I the only person bothered by the Mardi Gras? The rest of the country is spending billions of $$$ on Katrina recovery, and New Orleans is partying. Fox news said this afternoon that overtime for the NOPD will run 2.5 million $$ alone. I mean things are tough, it is tax time, and we have to cough up hard earned money, while NO acts like a buck sponge.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Mardi Gras has long been an occasion for the city to laugh at tragedy and aim barbs at authorities, and given all the pain New Orleans has suffered in the past year the irreverence should reach new heights this season. Armed with sharp tongues and images such as the blue tarps that still protect broken roofs across the city, the clubs that stage Mardi Gras parades are targeting Hurricane Katrina and the politicians they blame for the chaotic response to the catastrophe. "It is hard living here now. We need to have our opportunity to release,"...

The largest and most famous carnival celebration in Belgium is the one of the Flemish town of Aalst, 35 kms to the west of Brussels. Several groups parade through town in a pageant with floats, bands, and jesters, making fun of recent national and international events. The tradition goes back centuries, to mediaeval times. With carnival [mardi gras, as they say in Louisiana] approaching (28 February), the authorities are afraid that some groups might use the Danish cartoon crisis to dress up – God, or rather Allah, forbid – as the prophet Muhammad.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A group of 86 evangelical Christian leaders are reportedly supporting a major initiative to fight global warming. Warning "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change," the leaders include the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, aid groups and churches, such as the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life," The New York Times reported Wednesday. "For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the Christian leaders said in a statement to...

Trash bag maker Glad Products Co. became the first of what city officials hoped would be several corporate sponsors to help this cash-strapped city pay for Mardi Gras celebrations. Glad said it would donate about 100,000 trash bags and organize volunteers who could help the city's Department of Sanitation clean up during the festivities, which mostly take place on the streets and generate mounds of trash. The company has also pledged to give the city an undisclosed amount of money, said MediaBuys LLC., the company leading the search for sponsors. The city is seeking sponsors to help pay for an...

Officials in New Orleans are scrambling for funds to pay for the 2006 Carnival parade season. The city began planning the Mardi Gras festivities just weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit in Aug 29 and the accompanying levee failures devastated the city. Krewe officials have yet to line up the $2.7 million needed, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. MediaBuys LLC of Los Angeles, which was hired to find sponsors, told the newspaper significant sponsorships may be announced Monday. None had been finalized by Thursday, the newspaper said. Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt, who chairs the city council's Budget Committee, said she would...

U.S. President George W. Bush participates in a reconstruction efforts roundtable with small business owners and community leaders while visiting New Orleans January 12, 2006. The president is touring the Gulf Coast region to witness efforts to rebuild the region after Hurricane Katrina destroyed many parts of the area last year. REUTERS/Larry Downing

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge ruled on Thursday that some New Orleans evacuees from Hurricane Katrina who are still living in government-paid hotel rooms can stay there until the end of Mardi Gras. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval gave the evacuees until March 1 to find other housing so they would have guaranteed shelter through the Carnival season, which ends Feb. 28. snip There were still 26,000 families living in FEMA-paid hotel rooms this week, the agency said.

With the city in dire financial shape because of Hurricane Katrina, companies are lining up for the opportunity to become the first-ever corporate sponsors of New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration. At least 20 companies are offering to pay $2 million each to help cover the police and cleanup costs for next month's parades and parties, according to MediaBuys LLC, the firm hired to search for underwriters. The city, which had to lay off half its employees after the storm, plans to select four main sponsors. "We're very fortunate the interest level has been very, very high ... almost to the...

ATLANTA -- Evacuees from New Orleans plan a protest in Atlanta to the city's plan to hold Mardi Gras celebrations in two months. An angry and raucous crowd of evacuees chastised New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin last week for approving the festival. He told the crowd he actually opposed celebrating the festival but tourism leaders forced his hand. In Atlanta, a group plans a protest at 2 p.m. Monday on West Peachtree Street ahead of Monday night’s Saints-Falcons game. Protesters fear seeing revelers in the French Quarter at Mardi Gras will make agencies trying to help evacuees withdraw their help....

Hurricane Katrina refugees stuck in hotel rooms and unfamiliar surroundings across the United States are in no mood to party and they're decrying this city's plans to hold Mardi Gras celebrations in two months. "This is not the time for fun, this is the time to put people's lives back on track," said Lillie Antoine, a 51-year-old refugee stuck in Tulsa, Okla. Hurricane Katrina's cultural and economic wrecking ball came on the eve of what promised to be one of the most exuberant parties in this party city's history -- the 150th anniversary of Carnival parades in New Orleans. Carnival...

In a brewing dispute over next year's Mardi Gras, the hotel and tourism industry on Wednesday spoke out against Mayor Ray Nagin's suggestion that hotels donate a portion of their profits from Mardi Gras to help refugees return to the city. Darrius Gray, the head of the Greater New Orleans & Lodging Association, belittled Nagin's suggestion, saying hotels have been losing money since Hurricane Katrina and are in no position to hand out money. "Profits are hard to come by these days to tell you the truth," Gray said. Nagin made his comments on Tuesday after a news conference, but...

In a brewing dispute over next year's Mardi Gras, the hotel and tourism industry on Wednesday spoke out against Mayor Ray Nagin's suggestion that hotels donate a portion of their profits from Mardi Gras to help refugees return to the city. Darrius Gray, the head of the Greater New Orleans & Lodging Association, belittled Nagin's suggestion, saying hotels have been losing money since Hurricane Katrina and are in no position to hand out money. "Profits are hard to come by these days to tell you the truth," Gray said. Nagin made his comments on Tuesday after a news conference, but...