Mississippi/Jackson
Bel on the Shoulder - A Parable
Oct 29, 2011 15:49
I came across this story while cleaning out some folders on my hard drive. it’s a bit anachronistic, in that Governor Kirk Fordice passed away quite a while ago, but it also addresses current affairs. I’m publishing it on the Jackson Progressive site, since it belongs with that collection. Close the tab or window to return.
Read Bel on the ShoulderComments
Bill Luckett and the Ghost of Mike Sturdivant
Jan 06, 2011 09:08
The JP has been receiving email fliers from Bill Luckett for Governor for a number of months. Finally, I went through his web site in an effort to discover what makes him different from all the rest of the gubernatorial wannabes, but was unsuccessful. At the best, his web site seem free of the usual obnoxious right-wing propaganda and he seems like a nice, intelligent, and honest man. At the worst, the web site lacks any substantive commitment beyond jobs, education and new perspectives in leadership. The fact that he is not a career politician cuts both ways; while he may not be a creature that crawls in the usual swamp of Mississippi politics, he will have to master that very swamp before he can bring about substantial change in education, government and the state’s economic wellbeing.
Luckett reminds me of Mike Sturdivant, a wealthy businessman and plantation owner from Glendora who lost the Democratic nomination for governor in 1987 to Ray Mabus , who went on to defeat Tupelo industrialist Jack Reed in the general election. Sturdivant, who by all accounts was an intelligent and reasonably progressive person, similarly ran as a non-politician who promised to bring new perspectives to the governor’s mansion. Mabus, who had gained a reputation for fiscal rectitude as state auditor, easily crushed Sturdivant, who spent more than a million dollars of his own money on his campaign.
Mabus, who also campaigned as a fresh face in Mississippi politics, turned out in the end to have few new ideas worth considering, and was turned out of office by disappointed voters in favor of Republican businessman Kirk Fordice, who rode the right-wing wave that was then inundating the nation.
But I digress.
I’m interested in knowing more about who this Bill Luckett really is. Given the fact that 90% of Mississippi whites voted for an elderly and semi-senile former prisoner of war over a bright, highly educated former head of the Harvard Law Review (who just happened to be African-American) in the last presidential election, there is little hope that the swamp of Mississippi politics will ever be drained—or even penetrated—in the near future. But I rejoice that someone is trying. If you have knowledge about Bill Luckett that would help the readership of the JP, put it in the comments.
Luckett reminds me of Mike Sturdivant, a wealthy businessman and plantation owner from Glendora who lost the Democratic nomination for governor in 1987 to Ray Mabus , who went on to defeat Tupelo industrialist Jack Reed in the general election. Sturdivant, who by all accounts was an intelligent and reasonably progressive person, similarly ran as a non-politician who promised to bring new perspectives to the governor’s mansion. Mabus, who had gained a reputation for fiscal rectitude as state auditor, easily crushed Sturdivant, who spent more than a million dollars of his own money on his campaign.
Mabus, who also campaigned as a fresh face in Mississippi politics, turned out in the end to have few new ideas worth considering, and was turned out of office by disappointed voters in favor of Republican businessman Kirk Fordice, who rode the right-wing wave that was then inundating the nation.
But I digress.
I’m interested in knowing more about who this Bill Luckett really is. Given the fact that 90% of Mississippi whites voted for an elderly and semi-senile former prisoner of war over a bright, highly educated former head of the Harvard Law Review (who just happened to be African-American) in the last presidential election, there is little hope that the swamp of Mississippi politics will ever be drained—or even penetrated—in the near future. But I rejoice that someone is trying. If you have knowledge about Bill Luckett that would help the readership of the JP, put it in the comments.
What Mississippi & Nepal Have in Common
Jul 24, 2010 09:58
Here’s an interesting article on income inequality in the United States. The Gini coefficient measures how far the distribution of income differs from a perfectly equal income distribution, and is used by the Census Bureau to measure inequality. A population in which everyone makes the same income has a Gini coefficient of 0, whereas a perfectly unequal population—one person at the top receives all the income—would have a Gini coefficient of 1.
The article lists each state and its Gini coefficients along with the third-world nation with the closest-matching Gini coefficient. Mississippi (Gini coefficient = .471) most closely resembles Nepal by that measure.
The title of the linked article, “Is the U.S. Becoming a Third-World Country?” thus has an answer: Mississippi is already a third-world country. The rest of the U.S. is following us onto the plantation.
The article lists each state and its Gini coefficients along with the third-world nation with the closest-matching Gini coefficient. Mississippi (Gini coefficient = .471) most closely resembles Nepal by that measure.
The title of the linked article, “Is the U.S. Becoming a Third-World Country?” thus has an answer: Mississippi is already a third-world country. The rest of the U.S. is following us onto the plantation.
Barbour one of the Worst Governors - CREW
Apr 25, 2010 13:09
Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW) has published its list of the Worst Governors in the nation, and our own Haley Barbour has made the top ten. According to CREW, Barbour’s accomplishment that brought about his membership in this exclusive list are that he:
• Allegedly laundered campaign contributions
• Refused to accept federal stimulus funds to expand unemployment insurance
• Used his position to enrich himself and his family members
You can download the entire report on Barbour here. At first blush, it appears that Barbour’s name tops the list as the very worse of the worst, but actually the list is alphabetical, so we don’t know if his score is worse or better than Sanford (SC) or Perry (TX). As Dr. Johnson once said of Rousseau and Voltaire “Why Sir, it is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them.”
In 19th Century England, the term “Bob’s your uncle” was a commentary on the good financial fortune that relatives of prominent Victorian politician Arthur Balfour experienced as a result of his influence. In Mississippi, we can quite appropriately say that if Haley’s your uncle, you are probably doing very well indeed.
• Allegedly laundered campaign contributions
• Refused to accept federal stimulus funds to expand unemployment insurance
• Used his position to enrich himself and his family members
You can download the entire report on Barbour here. At first blush, it appears that Barbour’s name tops the list as the very worse of the worst, but actually the list is alphabetical, so we don’t know if his score is worse or better than Sanford (SC) or Perry (TX). As Dr. Johnson once said of Rousseau and Voltaire “Why Sir, it is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them.”
In 19th Century England, the term “Bob’s your uncle” was a commentary on the good financial fortune that relatives of prominent Victorian politician Arthur Balfour experienced as a result of his influence. In Mississippi, we can quite appropriately say that if Haley’s your uncle, you are probably doing very well indeed.
On the Irby's Febuary 11 Misfortune
Mar 08, 2009 22:33
It is indeed a sad story. It recalled Thomas Mann’s novel of a Lübeck merchant family, Buddenbrooks. While history does not literally repeat itself, human nature is such that it often seems that way.
I weep for the Irbys, as well as Dr. Mark Pogue and his fiancee, Dr. Lisa Dedousis, neither of whom I knew, who lost their lives in the accident. None of them deserved that outcome.
I weep for the Irbys, as well as Dr. Mark Pogue and his fiancee, Dr. Lisa Dedousis, neither of whom I knew, who lost their lives in the accident. None of them deserved that outcome.
Update: The Mississippi House of Representatives Votes $88 million in Bonds for the Biolab
May 30, 2008 19:45
I missed it yesterday, but it looks as though the powers-that-be here in Mississippi really want that biological facility at Flora. Are they that dumb and irresponsible? Sadly, it appears so.
Read the article.
Read the article.
USA Today Article on the Move of the Plum Island facility to the mainland - Maybe Flora
May 29, 2008 23:08
The JP Blog has commented before on the government's plans to move the Plum Island hoof-and-mouth disease facility to a location on the mainland and renaming it the National Bio-and-Agro-Defense Facility that will also study diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans.
Flora is on the short list for the laboratory, along with Athens, Ga., Manhattan, Kan., Butner, N.C., and San Antonio.
USA Today recently ran an article on the issue in which our own representative Chip Pickering is quoted as strongly supporting the move to Flora.
Read the article and ask yourself whether or not you would like to live anywhere close to a facility that works not only with hoof-and-mouth disease, but also with diseases that can infect human beings.
Flora is on the short list for the laboratory, along with Athens, Ga., Manhattan, Kan., Butner, N.C., and San Antonio.
USA Today recently ran an article on the issue in which our own representative Chip Pickering is quoted as strongly supporting the move to Flora.
Read the article and ask yourself whether or not you would like to live anywhere close to a facility that works not only with hoof-and-mouth disease, but also with diseases that can infect human beings.
Mississippi is first in something, and for once, it's a good thing
Mar 20, 2008 10:11
According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, there is a nationwide crisis in mental health treatment that is stressing the legal system and society in general: the shortage in public psychiatric beds—100,000 of them.
The history of public institutional psychiatric care since the 1050s has been a story of deinstitutionalization and treatment with new drugs for schizophrenia (Thorazine), depression (tricyclics), bipolar disorder (lithium and valproic acid), and numerous other mental disorders for which the only treatment had previously been involuntary confinement, too often under inhumane and squalid conditions. It has also involved policy decisions by Federal and state governments as to Medicare and Medicaid funding (patients in public hospitals not eligible) and a series of civil rights lawsuits that restricted the ability of states to confine the mentally ill indefinitely without due process or treatment.
The 15 experts consulted by the Center consistently estimated that 50 (range 40 to 60) public psychiatric beds per 100,000 population are needed for hospitalization for individuals with serious psychiatric disorders. This assumes the availability of good outpatient programs and outpatient commitment.
Mississippi, at 49.7 beds per 100,000, barely meets that minimum (at least within a margin of error), but it is the only state to do so, followed by South Dakota at 40.3.
The consequences of this negligence are not speculative:
1. Marked increase of persons who are homeless.
2. Massive increase in severely mentally persons in jails and prisons:
3. Concentration of mentally ill persons in emergency rooms, waiting for psychiatric beds to be found:
Many readers will recall the death on April 18, 1993 of Matt Devenney, shot by a mentally ill man in front of the Community Stewpot where Devenney was the director. What most people did not know was that a Hinds County Chancery judge had previously found the killer to be insane and dangerous, but could not convince the powers-that-were to keep him confined at Whitfield. Each time, while the judge watched helplessly, they released him after a short stay. Eventually, he killed somebody.
It ought not to take a murder to convince a shrink that a patient is dangerous.
I suspect, however, that they did know that he was dangerous, but just didn't have a long-term bed or a cell. Now he does.
So while we may be ahead of the rest of the nation in the statistical tables, what we are doing is still inadequate.
The history of public institutional psychiatric care since the 1050s has been a story of deinstitutionalization and treatment with new drugs for schizophrenia (Thorazine), depression (tricyclics), bipolar disorder (lithium and valproic acid), and numerous other mental disorders for which the only treatment had previously been involuntary confinement, too often under inhumane and squalid conditions. It has also involved policy decisions by Federal and state governments as to Medicare and Medicaid funding (patients in public hospitals not eligible) and a series of civil rights lawsuits that restricted the ability of states to confine the mentally ill indefinitely without due process or treatment.
The 15 experts consulted by the Center consistently estimated that 50 (range 40 to 60) public psychiatric beds per 100,000 population are needed for hospitalization for individuals with serious psychiatric disorders. This assumes the availability of good outpatient programs and outpatient commitment.
Mississippi, at 49.7 beds per 100,000, barely meets that minimum (at least within a margin of error), but it is the only state to do so, followed by South Dakota at 40.3.
The consequences of this negligence are not speculative:
1. Marked increase of persons who are homeless.
The effect of mentally ill homeless persons on the quality of life on nation’s sidewalks and in parks and public libraries are known by all who live in cities. According to one observer: “A simple visit to the local elementary school, post office or grocery store . . . can be a Dantean journey through the dark underside of our society. Violence, harassment and an astonishing list of antisocial behavior are commonplace.” These social costs are matched by fiscal costs. In Los Angeles it was estimated that the cost of “arrests, incarcerations, emergency medical care and other crisis interventions” runs between $35,000 and $150,000 per person per year for individuals who are chronically homeless. In Reno “a chronically homeless mentally ill man . . . cost the county at least $1 million during his 10 years on the streets before he died in 2005.” Fiscal conservatives thought that they would save money by emptying state mental hospitals, but they in fact only shifted the fiscal burden from the department of mental health to departments of corrections and social services and to the courts.
2. Massive increase in severely mentally persons in jails and prisons:
The three largest de facto psychiatric institutions in the United States are the Los Angeles County Jail, Chicago’s Cook County Jail, and New York’s Riker Island Jail. We have been unable to identify a single county in the nation where the county psychiatric inpatient facility is holding as many mentally ill individuals as the county jail. And once a person is in jail, it is almost impossible to find them a bed in a psychiatric hospital. In Virginia, for example, Sheriff Paul Lanteigne of Virginia Beach “estimates that it typically takes at least six months to find an available bed for a deranged inmate.”
3. Concentration of mentally ill persons in emergency rooms, waiting for psychiatric beds to be found:
4. Violent crime:In North Carolina, for example, Doug Trantham at the Smoky Mountain Mental Health Center described “an inpatient crisis so bad that what it does is backup the entire system.” Officers there have sometimes had to drive patients across the entire state—a seven- to eight-hour drive one way—to a hospital with a bed. Emergency rooms are said to have mentally ill people waiting “four or five days in our ICU just waiting for a place to go. . . . You may have somebody in there all weekend, screaming for 12 or 18 hours,” said a nurse. It is the same in every state; in Arlington, Virginia, county officials had to call 31 hospitals before finding one that would accept a patient. The impact of overburdening the ERs with patients needing hospital beds goes far beyond psychiatric patients; rather, it interferes with all medical and surgical care in the ER.
Because there are so few beds available, individuals with severe psychiatric disorders who need to be hospitalized are often unable to get admitted, and those who are admitted are often discharged prematurely. Fred Markowitz, in his 2006 study of 81 American cities, reported a statistically significant correlation between the number of public psychiatric beds available in that city and the prevalence of violent crimes, defined as murder, robbery, assault, and rape.11 This is not surprising, since studies have shown that between 5 to 10 percent of seriously mentally ill persons living in the community will commit a violent act each year, almost all because they are not receiving treatment. Such individual are responsible for at least 5 percent of all homicides.
Many readers will recall the death on April 18, 1993 of Matt Devenney, shot by a mentally ill man in front of the Community Stewpot where Devenney was the director. What most people did not know was that a Hinds County Chancery judge had previously found the killer to be insane and dangerous, but could not convince the powers-that-were to keep him confined at Whitfield. Each time, while the judge watched helplessly, they released him after a short stay. Eventually, he killed somebody.
It ought not to take a murder to convince a shrink that a patient is dangerous.
I suspect, however, that they did know that he was dangerous, but just didn't have a long-term bed or a cell. Now he does.
So while we may be ahead of the rest of the nation in the statistical tables, what we are doing is still inadequate.
Plutocracy on the March in Mississippi
Nov 04, 2007 16:17
In the poorest state in the nation, the average Mississippian is still clueless as to why his circumstances are so dire. The so-called tort-reform legislation and its sorry history give a clue. The stacking of the Mississippi Supreme Court with business-serving judges explains a great deal, as well.
Read an article in the Jackson Free Press on The Reality Of Tort Reform.
Read an article in the Jackson Free Press on The Reality Of Tort Reform.
Bio-Accidents Not Unusual in Labs Like the One Proposed for Flora
Oct 20, 2007 09:49
Via Daily Kos, the Houston Chronicle featured a story on October 2 recounting numerous accidents that have occurred in biological laboratories around the nation involving exposure by employes to extremely dangerous viruses and bacteria as well as the accidental release of dangerous organisms into the environment. As one would expect, the Bush administration has suppressed information about some of the most serious of the accidents on grounds of national security. According to the Chronicle:
According to the Government Accountability Office publication, High-Containment Biosafety Laboratories: Preliminary Observations on the Oversight of the Proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 Laboratories in the United States, the risks created by such labs are significant:
Houston Chronicle: Accidents rise at labs handling deadliest germs
Previous posts in the JPBlog:
What is a "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?
Update: "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?
The Federal Government is now deciding whether or not to relocate the biological facility on Plum Island to a site near Flora, and state officials are trampling each other in a lemming-like rush to convince the Department of Homeland Security to put it here.American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing as more labs do the work.
No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms and poisons that can cause illnesses with no cure. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.
The mishaps include workers bitten or scratched by infected animals, skin cuts, needle sticks and more, according to an Associated Press review of confidential reports submitted to federal regulators. They describe accidents involving anthrax, bird flu virus, monkeypox and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states. More than two dozen incidents were still under investigation.
According to the Government Accountability Office publication, High-Containment Biosafety Laboratories: Preliminary Observations on the Oversight of the Proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 Laboratories in the United States, the risks created by such labs are significant:
Putting the facility in Flora is a bad idea. We don't need dangerous microorganisms cultured and kept here. One nasty accident (and human beings and institutions are prone to accidents by their very nature) and we could be faced with a Katrina-sized health disaster. And we know by experience how much help Mississippi will be getting from the Bush administration (or any other Republican administration) if that disaster comes about. The facility should be located on an island away from the mainland U.S.According to the experts, there is a baseline risk associated with any high- containment. With expansion, the aggregate risks will increase. However, the associated safety and security risks will be greater for new labs with less experience. In addition, high-containment labs have health risks for individual lab workers as well as the surrounding community. According to a CDC official, the risks due to accidental exposure or release can never be completely eliminated, and even labs within sophisticated biological research programs—including those most extensively regulated—have had and will continue to have safety failures. In addition, while some of the most dangerous agents are regulated under the CDC-USDA’s Select Agent Program, many high-containment labs work with agents not covered under this program. Labs outside the Select Agent Program also pose risks, given that many unregulated agents can cause severe illness or even death (see appendix IV for a list of some agents, but not select agents, recommended to be worked on in high-containment labs). These labs also have associated risks because of their potential as targets for terrorism or theft from either external or internal sources. Even labs outside the Select Agent Program can pose security risks in that such labs represent a capability that can be paired with the necessary agents to become a threat. While the United States has regulations governing select agents, many nations do not have any regulations governing the transfer or possession of dangerous biological agents.
Houston Chronicle: Accidents rise at labs handling deadliest germs
Previous posts in the JPBlog:
What is a "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?
Update: "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?
What is a "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?
Jul 13, 2007 21:09
According to the Clarion-Ledger, Flora is a finalist for a new federal laboratory whose purpose is ostensibly (according to the Department of Homeland Security website):
The current facility is the Plum Island Animal Disease Center at Plum Island, New York. Display map of Plum Island facility in another window.
The facility was originally—and logically—a part of the Departments of Agriculture until June 2003, when it was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security. Now that it is part of the same agency that gave you the Katrina recovery, there is some reason to be concerned about the safety of a facility that will be dealing with highly infectious organisms that can infect humans as well as animals. Up to now, the federal government saw fit to at least partially isolate the lab on an offshore island. 21 USC § 113a prohibits live foot-and-mouth disease virus on the mainland U.S. except under very special circumstances. Now Homeland Security wants to plunk it down near a small town in the most impoverished state in the nation, where it will be warmly welcomed as source of jobs. Whenever this administration tries to justify a questionable policy or activity, it has invariably used the term "terrorism," just as it is doing now.
I am suspicious.
Let's ask some hard questions before this project gets too far along:
1. What is this lab doing under the Department of Homeland Security instead of Agriculture? Is this grounds for confidence in the safety of the lab?
2. Why was the phrase "Animal Disease" taken out of the title and "defense" inserted?
3. Why isn't it cheaper and less disruptive to the employees of the present facility to build a replacement on Plum Island?
4. Will this facility be culturing virulent and dangerous organisms?
5. Is this facility involved with any phase of chemical or biological warfare?
6. Was there local opposition to rebuilding the facility on Plum Island, and if so, was it because the locals believed that with its expanded mission it poses a threat to health?
Sometimes I think that the politicians in this state would welcome a branch facility of Hell, so long as they could brag that it created jobs and made money for real estate developers.
Update 7/21/2007: Question 7 should be "Will security be contracted to a private corporation, such as Wackenhut?" TPM Muckraker is running an article today on Wackenhut's lax security practices:
- to integrate those aspects of public and animal health research that have been determined to be central to national security;
- to assess and research evolving bioterrorism threats over the next five decades; and;
- to enable the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture (USDA), and Health and Human Services (HHS) to fulfill their related homeland defense research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) responsibilities.
The current facility is the Plum Island Animal Disease Center at Plum Island, New York. Display map of Plum Island facility in another window.
The facility was originally—and logically—a part of the Departments of Agriculture until June 2003, when it was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security. Now that it is part of the same agency that gave you the Katrina recovery, there is some reason to be concerned about the safety of a facility that will be dealing with highly infectious organisms that can infect humans as well as animals. Up to now, the federal government saw fit to at least partially isolate the lab on an offshore island. 21 USC § 113a prohibits live foot-and-mouth disease virus on the mainland U.S. except under very special circumstances. Now Homeland Security wants to plunk it down near a small town in the most impoverished state in the nation, where it will be warmly welcomed as source of jobs. Whenever this administration tries to justify a questionable policy or activity, it has invariably used the term "terrorism," just as it is doing now.
I am suspicious.
Let's ask some hard questions before this project gets too far along:
1. What is this lab doing under the Department of Homeland Security instead of Agriculture? Is this grounds for confidence in the safety of the lab?
2. Why was the phrase "Animal Disease" taken out of the title and "defense" inserted?
3. Why isn't it cheaper and less disruptive to the employees of the present facility to build a replacement on Plum Island?
4. Will this facility be culturing virulent and dangerous organisms?
5. Is this facility involved with any phase of chemical or biological warfare?
6. Was there local opposition to rebuilding the facility on Plum Island, and if so, was it because the locals believed that with its expanded mission it poses a threat to health?
Sometimes I think that the politicians in this state would welcome a branch facility of Hell, so long as they could brag that it created jobs and made money for real estate developers.
Update 7/21/2007: Question 7 should be "Will security be contracted to a private corporation, such as Wackenhut?" TPM Muckraker is running an article today on Wackenhut's lax security practices:
Wackenhut has the contract to secure the Army's Holston Ammunition Plant in Tennessee. Last year, guards at the plant told lawmakers that boaters were easily able to float into restricted areas at the riverfront facility, and that Wackenhut only bolstered patrols when it knew that Army inspectors were up for a visit. Wackenhut has contracts to secure 31 nuclear power plants around the country. Last year, the Project on Government Oversight reported that Wackenhut nearly got employees killed by not stopping a mock terrorism-response exercise at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility in time. Perhaps most egregiously, the Department of Homeland security opted last year not to renew Wackenhut's contract to protect DHS's Washington headquarters after guards told the AP about numerous security breaches -- including a botched anthrax scare. (Wackenhut security officials actually took the "suspicious white powder" into the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff and sprinkled it out of his window into the area below.)
If Elected Governor ...
May 09, 2007 16:10
For years, I've asked candidates "If you are elected governor, how do you expect the State of Mississippi to be different when you leave the office four or eight years from now?" Having never received a satisfactory answer, I've attempted in the Jackson Progressive to answer the question myself as though I were a candidate.
If I'm Elected Governor Here's How I Would Like Things to be Different When I Leave Office
If I'm Elected Governor Here's How I Would Like Things to be Different When I Leave Office
Mississippi Bell Labs - An Immodest Proposal
Apr 22, 2007 16:14
Prior to the breakup of AT&T, Bell Labs was one of the most creative institutions in the world. So many inventions and discoveries came out of an institution that hired geniuses and told them to do what they wanted to do, that it can honestly be said that had Bell Labs not existed, the World would be a vastly different place and much the worser. Because of the unique exemption the government gave AT&T for many years, it had to license its discoveries very expensively. Unix, for instance, was practically given to colleges and universities, which explains why Unix and its descendants like BDS and Linux are pervasive in the computer world.
Bell Labs is now owned by Alcatel-Lucent, and although its mission is similar to that of AT&T Bell Labs, the unique circumstances that made it such a national treasure no longer exist and it resembles a large corporate research organization more and more. This is clearly one of those instances where the application of market principles resulted in a monumental loss for us all.
Would it be possible for the State of Mississippi to establish such an independent laboratory? Is it desirable? Would it be a good investment of the admittedly scarce resources of this poverty-stricken state? Could the legislature and the executive branches be trusted to keep their political hands off the lab and simply let geniuses do what they do so well? Could the Department of Economic Development and the state universities be dissuaded from regarding it as a competitor? Big questions. Previous attempts have not turned out well:
Summaries of PEER Reports Vol. 1 1973-79
Summaries of PEER Reports 1973-2002
There could be some big benefits, though. The state would own a collection of valuable patents it could license to Mississippi businesses or businesses that are willing to move here for the long run as a condition of licensing. The people of Mississippi would gain both from job opportunities and from the licensing income that would help finance state government. And although the geniuses in the lab would be given freedom to work on whatever projects they wished, there would always be the understanding that they would be expected to direct some of that intelligence and creativity toward solving the manifold problems we experience in this poorest state.
The biggest problem with such an institution would be the demand for immediate concrete achievements. ITD was founded with great expectations of high-tech employment in the state and it didn't work out. A Mississippi "Bell" Labs would have to be established in the faith that something good will eventually come out of it and with a minimum guarantee of ten years' full funding.
There are many more problems that would have to be dealt with before something like this would have a chance to succeed. The composition of the board of trustees would be a huge problem. Many of the logical choices for the board would have sharp axes to grind, like representatives of higher education. Who gets to pick the geniuses to initially populate the labs? Once the lab gets up and started, the employed geniuses themselves could suggest new colleagues. Where to put the labs? Not on a university campus, but not too far away, either.
In spite of the obstacles, a successful Mississippi Labs would represent a coup. We should at least be discussing the possibilities.
Bell Labs is now owned by Alcatel-Lucent, and although its mission is similar to that of AT&T Bell Labs, the unique circumstances that made it such a national treasure no longer exist and it resembles a large corporate research organization more and more. This is clearly one of those instances where the application of market principles resulted in a monumental loss for us all.
Would it be possible for the State of Mississippi to establish such an independent laboratory? Is it desirable? Would it be a good investment of the admittedly scarce resources of this poverty-stricken state? Could the legislature and the executive branches be trusted to keep their political hands off the lab and simply let geniuses do what they do so well? Could the Department of Economic Development and the state universities be dissuaded from regarding it as a competitor? Big questions. Previous attempts have not turned out well:
Summaries of PEER Reports Vol. 1 1973-79
Summaries of PEER Reports 1973-2002
There could be some big benefits, though. The state would own a collection of valuable patents it could license to Mississippi businesses or businesses that are willing to move here for the long run as a condition of licensing. The people of Mississippi would gain both from job opportunities and from the licensing income that would help finance state government. And although the geniuses in the lab would be given freedom to work on whatever projects they wished, there would always be the understanding that they would be expected to direct some of that intelligence and creativity toward solving the manifold problems we experience in this poorest state.
The biggest problem with such an institution would be the demand for immediate concrete achievements. ITD was founded with great expectations of high-tech employment in the state and it didn't work out. A Mississippi "Bell" Labs would have to be established in the faith that something good will eventually come out of it and with a minimum guarantee of ten years' full funding.
There are many more problems that would have to be dealt with before something like this would have a chance to succeed. The composition of the board of trustees would be a huge problem. Many of the logical choices for the board would have sharp axes to grind, like representatives of higher education. Who gets to pick the geniuses to initially populate the labs? Once the lab gets up and started, the employed geniuses themselves could suggest new colleagues. Where to put the labs? Not on a university campus, but not too far away, either.
In spite of the obstacles, a successful Mississippi Labs would represent a coup. We should at least be discussing the possibilities.
Governor Tobacco Gets His Way
Mar 14, 2007 15:29
The tax swap to lower the sales tax on groceries and raise it on tobacco pretty much died this week in the legislature. With the governer's opposition, it had little chance in the Republican-dominated Senate.
Why did the governor oppose the revenue-swap? Two reasons:
First, as a right-wing Republican, he is philosophically opposed to tax relief for anyone but the wealthy. A sales tax reduction would benefit all the people of this state, but it would benefit the people at the bottom the most. That's a no-no.
Second is his long-term lobbying relationship with the tobacco industry. Clearly this is more important to Governor Tobacco than the welfare of Mississippi youth who are the most vulnerable to the blandishments of this industry of death.
In the linked article, Governor Tobacco mentioned that as soon as the state budget improves he has some major tax cuts in mind. You can be virtually certain that his proposed tax cuts will not include the sales tax, one of the most regressive taxes levied in this state, but you can be sure that he will propose cutting income and estate taxes, small as they may be, because the benefits of those cuts would go to the wealthy.
Of course, there must be spending cuts to balance the budget (unlike the federal government). Guess where they will come from? You guessed it: programs intended to benefit the public and for which there is no immediate payoff. Fortunately, the likelyhood of the tax cuts is slim, because the legislature must match revenue and expenditures and those are parts of the budget that will be almost impossible to cut, practically or politically.
The total state tax burden on Mississippi's citizens is regressive. A person earning less than $11,000/year pays the State of Mississippi an average of 10% of his income. Persons making between $53,000 and $96.000 pay 8% of their income, and persons in the top one percentile (annual income $509,200.00 and over) pay only 5.3%. Who needs tax relief, then? Who can afford to pay more taxes? The answer is obvious.
Even an absolutely flat tax—where all state taxes combined extract the same percentage of income from everyone—would be preferable to what we have now. That 10% literally takes food off the table of the folks at the bottom. It would be pocket change for persons in the top 1%.
But Governor Tobacco will have none of that.
Why did the governor oppose the revenue-swap? Two reasons:
First, as a right-wing Republican, he is philosophically opposed to tax relief for anyone but the wealthy. A sales tax reduction would benefit all the people of this state, but it would benefit the people at the bottom the most. That's a no-no.
Second is his long-term lobbying relationship with the tobacco industry. Clearly this is more important to Governor Tobacco than the welfare of Mississippi youth who are the most vulnerable to the blandishments of this industry of death.
In the linked article, Governor Tobacco mentioned that as soon as the state budget improves he has some major tax cuts in mind. You can be virtually certain that his proposed tax cuts will not include the sales tax, one of the most regressive taxes levied in this state, but you can be sure that he will propose cutting income and estate taxes, small as they may be, because the benefits of those cuts would go to the wealthy.
Of course, there must be spending cuts to balance the budget (unlike the federal government). Guess where they will come from? You guessed it: programs intended to benefit the public and for which there is no immediate payoff. Fortunately, the likelyhood of the tax cuts is slim, because the legislature must match revenue and expenditures and those are parts of the budget that will be almost impossible to cut, practically or politically.
The total state tax burden on Mississippi's citizens is regressive. A person earning less than $11,000/year pays the State of Mississippi an average of 10% of his income. Persons making between $53,000 and $96.000 pay 8% of their income, and persons in the top one percentile (annual income $509,200.00 and over) pay only 5.3%. Who needs tax relief, then? Who can afford to pay more taxes? The answer is obvious.
Even an absolutely flat tax—where all state taxes combined extract the same percentage of income from everyone—would be preferable to what we have now. That 10% literally takes food off the table of the folks at the bottom. It would be pocket change for persons in the top 1%.
But Governor Tobacco will have none of that.
Helping the Gulf Coast
Mar 02, 2007 22:16
A diary on the Daily Kos paints a dismal and outraging picture of the Republican approach to hurricane relief:
Buying Up the Coast for Fun and Profit--LOTS of Profit
Even Haley Barbour is playing his part. Read and heed.This is a multi-pronged issue, but in a nutshell, it's this: Big industry is getting free rein to buy up anything it can get its hands on, with encouragement and aid from the government at several levels.
Buying Up the Coast for Fun and Profit--LOTS of Profit
Why Education Isn't the Only Answer
Dec 01, 2006 08:34
Mississippi is always near the bottom in income and quality of education. It looks as though the Democratic House and the Republican Senate are once again at loggerheads, this time over money for schools, and won't be able to agree on a budget before the legislature meets in January.
The state is faced with a double-bind: Without a better-educated populace, things are not going to get better for most Mississippians, but without ways to put that education into use, either as employees or entrepreneurs, our best and brightest will go elsewhere to find opportunity. Conversely, students without prospects of earning a decent living have no incentive to take advantage of educational opportunities. If getting a high school diploma in Mississippi led to a livable income, people would get a high school education. The same goes with higher education. In economic terms, if the opportunity cost of not going to school is very low, people will be much less inclined to take advantage of school.
Look at it this way: if suddenly every adult Mississippian acquired a PhD, would the state become prosperous? Hardly.
The problem is that the economy of this state is structurally incapable of generating general prosperity. Mississippi's ruling class has always assumed, either consciously or unconsciously, that the hope of the state lies in low wages, weak unions, tourism, agriculture, and natural resources. How a highly-educated citizenry fits in with that vision has not been addressed, since that kind of economy can easily function with a small, well-paid elite and a minimum-wage workforce.
Admittedly, this is a vast oversimplification of the problem, but unless we start addressing it, we will never receive the benefit from the billions we spend on education, both from our tax money and the money transferred to us from the more prosperous states by the federal government. We will never achieve prosperity by electing to Congress men who have brought us massive tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful, NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, the Bankruptcy "Reform" bill, and who have invariably opposed over their entire political careers every proposal to increase the minimum wage or any other measure to help the non-affluent.:
There was a time when the following poem was meaningless to me. Now it speaks as if it were written today:
Consider these, for we have condemned them;
Leaders to no sure land, guides their bearings lost
Or in league with robbers have reversed the signposts,
Disrespectful to ancestors, irresponsible to heirs,
Born barren , a freak growth, root in rubble,
Fruitlessly blossoming, whose foliage suffocates,
Their sap is sluggish, they reject the sun.
The man with his tongue in his cheek, the woman
With her heart in the wrong place, unhandsome, unwholesome;
Have exposed the new-born to worse than weather,
Exiled the honest and sacked the seer.
These drowned the farms to form a pleasure-lake,
In time of drought they drain the reservoir
Through private pipes for baths and sprinklers.
Getters not begetters; gainers not beginners;
Whiners, no winners; no triers, betrayers;
Who steer by no star, whose moon means nothing.
Daily denying, unable to dig:
At bay in villas from blood relations,
Counters of spoons and content with cushions
They pray for peace, they hand down disaster.
They that take the bribe shall perish by the bribe,
Dying of dry rot, ending in asylums,
A curse to children, a charge on the state.
But still their fears and frenzies infect us;
Drug nor isolation will cure this cancer;
It is now or never, the hour of the knife,
The break with the past, the major operation.
--C. Day Lewis (1904-1972)
The state is faced with a double-bind: Without a better-educated populace, things are not going to get better for most Mississippians, but without ways to put that education into use, either as employees or entrepreneurs, our best and brightest will go elsewhere to find opportunity. Conversely, students without prospects of earning a decent living have no incentive to take advantage of educational opportunities. If getting a high school diploma in Mississippi led to a livable income, people would get a high school education. The same goes with higher education. In economic terms, if the opportunity cost of not going to school is very low, people will be much less inclined to take advantage of school.
Look at it this way: if suddenly every adult Mississippian acquired a PhD, would the state become prosperous? Hardly.
The problem is that the economy of this state is structurally incapable of generating general prosperity. Mississippi's ruling class has always assumed, either consciously or unconsciously, that the hope of the state lies in low wages, weak unions, tourism, agriculture, and natural resources. How a highly-educated citizenry fits in with that vision has not been addressed, since that kind of economy can easily function with a small, well-paid elite and a minimum-wage workforce.
Admittedly, this is a vast oversimplification of the problem, but unless we start addressing it, we will never receive the benefit from the billions we spend on education, both from our tax money and the money transferred to us from the more prosperous states by the federal government. We will never achieve prosperity by electing to Congress men who have brought us massive tax cuts for the wealthy and powerful, NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, the Bankruptcy "Reform" bill, and who have invariably opposed over their entire political careers every proposal to increase the minimum wage or any other measure to help the non-affluent.:
There was a time when the following poem was meaningless to me. Now it speaks as if it were written today:
Consider these, for we have condemned them;
Leaders to no sure land, guides their bearings lost
Or in league with robbers have reversed the signposts,
Disrespectful to ancestors, irresponsible to heirs,
Born barren , a freak growth, root in rubble,
Fruitlessly blossoming, whose foliage suffocates,
Their sap is sluggish, they reject the sun.
The man with his tongue in his cheek, the woman
With her heart in the wrong place, unhandsome, unwholesome;
Have exposed the new-born to worse than weather,
Exiled the honest and sacked the seer.
These drowned the farms to form a pleasure-lake,
In time of drought they drain the reservoir
Through private pipes for baths and sprinklers.
Getters not begetters; gainers not beginners;
Whiners, no winners; no triers, betrayers;
Who steer by no star, whose moon means nothing.
Daily denying, unable to dig:
At bay in villas from blood relations,
Counters of spoons and content with cushions
They pray for peace, they hand down disaster.
They that take the bribe shall perish by the bribe,
Dying of dry rot, ending in asylums,
A curse to children, a charge on the state.
But still their fears and frenzies infect us;
Drug nor isolation will cure this cancer;
It is now or never, the hour of the knife,
The break with the past, the major operation.
--C. Day Lewis (1904-1972)
Why I Don't Subscribe to the Clarion-Ledger
Jul 29, 2006 09:22
Occasionally, I tell myself that I ought to subscribe to the Clarion-Ledger. Who knows? After all, it is the paper of record for central Mississippi. I might be losing out on a nugget of news that could change my life.
When these thoughts appear, the C-L invariably pulls something that makes me realize that it, and the Gannet chain of which it is a part, is interested only in maximizing its profits and consequently must, in servicing that prime directive, strive to dominate the printed news media in the Jackson metro area. Its recent scheme to drive independent publications out of business with its exclusive plastic boxes merely reinforces my conviction that the state would be better off without the Clarion-Ledger.
The Jackson Free Press, one of the publications targeted by the C-L, is running a blog on the scam.
So once again, I'll read someone else's copy and hold my nose.
When these thoughts appear, the C-L invariably pulls something that makes me realize that it, and the Gannet chain of which it is a part, is interested only in maximizing its profits and consequently must, in servicing that prime directive, strive to dominate the printed news media in the Jackson metro area. Its recent scheme to drive independent publications out of business with its exclusive plastic boxes merely reinforces my conviction that the state would be better off without the Clarion-Ledger.
The Jackson Free Press, one of the publications targeted by the C-L, is running a blog on the scam.
So once again, I'll read someone else's copy and hold my nose.
Barbour's Medicaid Triumph
Jul 28, 2006 07:26
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour brags that he has saved Mississippi Medicaid $275 million in prescription costs.
The JP is unimpressed. Saving on prescription costs is easy: just order Medicaid to stop paying for prescriptions.
If you're depending on those Medicaid prescriptions to keep you alive, the solution is easy: Go without food or electricity or gas.
Any fool ought to be able to figure that one out.
The JP is unimpressed. Saving on prescription costs is easy: just order Medicaid to stop paying for prescriptions.
If you're depending on those Medicaid prescriptions to keep you alive, the solution is easy: Go without food or electricity or gas.
Any fool ought to be able to figure that one out.
Jackson Drinking Water Report 2005
Jul 08, 2006 11:18
The 2005 Annual Drinking Water quality Report arrived in the mail today. The heart of the 2-page report is contained in a table that sets out the concentrations of twenty different contaminants in Jackson's drinking water. For the technical non-experts among us, including this writer, the significant columns are Violation (Y/N), Date Collected, Level Detected and the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL).
The only contaminant showing a violation is Total Organic Carbon (TOC), the most likely source of contamination of which is said to be "Naturally Present in the Environment." The Water Department believes that this violation was due to errors in sampling and analysis, and TOC poses no health problem, anyway, except that "total organic carbon provides a medium for the formation of disinfection byproducts." That means that too high a TOC level may produce some nasty contaminants such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids when the water is chlorinated at the water plant. At the bottom of the table you will find HAA5 (sum of 5 Haloacetic acids) and TTHM (total trihalomethanes) concentrations, which are not not comforting. The level of HAA5 is 55.25 ppb, very close to the MCL, which is 60. The level of TTHM is 70.66 ppb, very close to the MCL, which is 80. (Whether the MCL is reliable is another question. Setting maximum concentration levels of contaminants is not only a scientific or medical matter; it has recently become political, with the appointment by the Bush administration of political operatives to positions of authority in scientific agencies like the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Having a clean and healthy environment can be costly to the corporate backers of the Republican party, so instead of forcing them to comply with environmental regulations, Bush has either put people in charge who have no intention of enforcing inconvenient regulations or he has simply rewritten the regulations to exempt his political sponsors. It is hard to trust public health agencies run by political hacks.)
Whenever we have a disturbance in the water supply, such as the pump failure last month, the water contains so much chlorine that it burns my nostrils when I wash my hands. At some point the chlorine becomes a greater health hazard than the possible bacterial contamination, and we can only hope that the authorities know what that point is and are appropriately cautious.
The only other disturbing information in the report is the age of some of the tests. Copper and lead tests were last run six years ago, hexacholorocyclo-pentadiene seven years ago and Beta/Photon emitters three years ago. Things change so fast in a capitalistic/technological/industrial world that relying on a six-year old test for contaminants could amount to gross negligence, although it probably isn't. It would be reassuring if the next report explains why a yearly (or even more frequent) test is not necessary for these substances.
Finally, the water that comes out of my north Jackson faucet tastes and smells foul. I don't recall that Jackson water was that bad when I grew up. In the '50s and '60s, bottled water was what you bought in Europe, not here. Now the tap water in Europe is as good as it gets and those of us who can do so either use filters or buy bottled water at a price higher than the price of gasoline.
What kind of investment would it take to make our city water sweet again?
The only contaminant showing a violation is Total Organic Carbon (TOC), the most likely source of contamination of which is said to be "Naturally Present in the Environment." The Water Department believes that this violation was due to errors in sampling and analysis, and TOC poses no health problem, anyway, except that "total organic carbon provides a medium for the formation of disinfection byproducts." That means that too high a TOC level may produce some nasty contaminants such as trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids when the water is chlorinated at the water plant. At the bottom of the table you will find HAA5 (sum of 5 Haloacetic acids) and TTHM (total trihalomethanes) concentrations, which are not not comforting. The level of HAA5 is 55.25 ppb, very close to the MCL, which is 60. The level of TTHM is 70.66 ppb, very close to the MCL, which is 80. (Whether the MCL is reliable is another question. Setting maximum concentration levels of contaminants is not only a scientific or medical matter; it has recently become political, with the appointment by the Bush administration of political operatives to positions of authority in scientific agencies like the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Having a clean and healthy environment can be costly to the corporate backers of the Republican party, so instead of forcing them to comply with environmental regulations, Bush has either put people in charge who have no intention of enforcing inconvenient regulations or he has simply rewritten the regulations to exempt his political sponsors. It is hard to trust public health agencies run by political hacks.)
Whenever we have a disturbance in the water supply, such as the pump failure last month, the water contains so much chlorine that it burns my nostrils when I wash my hands. At some point the chlorine becomes a greater health hazard than the possible bacterial contamination, and we can only hope that the authorities know what that point is and are appropriately cautious.
The only other disturbing information in the report is the age of some of the tests. Copper and lead tests were last run six years ago, hexacholorocyclo-pentadiene seven years ago and Beta/Photon emitters three years ago. Things change so fast in a capitalistic/technological/industrial world that relying on a six-year old test for contaminants could amount to gross negligence, although it probably isn't. It would be reassuring if the next report explains why a yearly (or even more frequent) test is not necessary for these substances.
Finally, the water that comes out of my north Jackson faucet tastes and smells foul. I don't recall that Jackson water was that bad when I grew up. In the '50s and '60s, bottled water was what you bought in Europe, not here. Now the tap water in Europe is as good as it gets and those of us who can do so either use filters or buy bottled water at a price higher than the price of gasoline.
What kind of investment would it take to make our city water sweet again?
No Wonder Pickering Votes for the Telecomms
Jun 26, 2006 19:27
American Radio Works has performed a valuable service by making available online a database of free travel taken by our legislators and their staffs and paid for mostly by lobbyists between January 2000 and December 2005.
Out of curiosity, I looked up my congressman, Chip Pickering, and came away with a much deeper understanding of why he votes the way he does. He's vice chairman of the house Energy and Commerce Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. That's the committee and subcommittee that defeated net neutrality amendments and gave the phone companies almost everything they wanted. Pickering was with them all the way.
So let's look into where he's traveling and who's paying his travel. Our Mississippi legislators are here. Pickering's page is here.
His office reported 38 office trips furnished by outside parties, amounting to $39,078.90 in value. Pickering's share was $14,850.99. Of the 14 trips he reported, 5 were paid for by telecoms: 3 by CTIA-The Wireless Association, 1by AT&T, and one by BellSouth. Four trips were paid for by defense contractors.
His staff took a lot of trips that were paid for by the telecoms. I haven't counted them up, but the great thing about the Internet is that you can look at the information yourself with a couple of clicks. (By the way, do you think you would be able to access that information if the telecoms had the power to control the content coming into your home or business? Pickering's vote against net neutrality would give them that power.)
Pickering, who serves on a committee with jurisdiction over telecommunications and the Internet, seems to be awfully popular with the big telecommunication companies. For a little more insight into his friends, click over to OpenSecrets and look at where his campaign contributions are coming from. In 2005-2006, the communication/electronics sector gave him $171,211, far outstripping the next sector, health, with $105,454.
Now look who his biggest donors are: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Together, these five corporations gave $62,000 and Pickering is running unopposed. Every one of these corporations has a direct interest in controlling access and usage of the Internet. Every one of them fought net neutrality bills in Congress with swarms of lobbyists and millions of dollars spent on slick, misleading commercials.
Now you can understand why Pickering doesn't care a fig about the Internet empowering citizens; he knows on which side his bread is buttered and votes accordingly.
Unfortunately, he has no Democratic opponent in November. It's hard to believe that Mississippians, if they were really informed, would return him to Congress given his record of voting against his constituents' interests. Then again, it just may be that he doesn't regard the people of his congressional district as his constituents, but just chumps to be thrown a bone now and then while he cuts taxes and doles out pork for his real constituents. You judge.
Out of curiosity, I looked up my congressman, Chip Pickering, and came away with a much deeper understanding of why he votes the way he does. He's vice chairman of the house Energy and Commerce Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. That's the committee and subcommittee that defeated net neutrality amendments and gave the phone companies almost everything they wanted. Pickering was with them all the way.
So let's look into where he's traveling and who's paying his travel. Our Mississippi legislators are here. Pickering's page is here.
His office reported 38 office trips furnished by outside parties, amounting to $39,078.90 in value. Pickering's share was $14,850.99. Of the 14 trips he reported, 5 were paid for by telecoms: 3 by CTIA-The Wireless Association, 1by AT&T, and one by BellSouth. Four trips were paid for by defense contractors.
His staff took a lot of trips that were paid for by the telecoms. I haven't counted them up, but the great thing about the Internet is that you can look at the information yourself with a couple of clicks. (By the way, do you think you would be able to access that information if the telecoms had the power to control the content coming into your home or business? Pickering's vote against net neutrality would give them that power.)
Pickering, who serves on a committee with jurisdiction over telecommunications and the Internet, seems to be awfully popular with the big telecommunication companies. For a little more insight into his friends, click over to OpenSecrets and look at where his campaign contributions are coming from. In 2005-2006, the communication/electronics sector gave him $171,211, far outstripping the next sector, health, with $105,454.
Now look who his biggest donors are: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Together, these five corporations gave $62,000 and Pickering is running unopposed. Every one of these corporations has a direct interest in controlling access and usage of the Internet. Every one of them fought net neutrality bills in Congress with swarms of lobbyists and millions of dollars spent on slick, misleading commercials.
Now you can understand why Pickering doesn't care a fig about the Internet empowering citizens; he knows on which side his bread is buttered and votes accordingly.
Unfortunately, he has no Democratic opponent in November. It's hard to believe that Mississippians, if they were really informed, would return him to Congress given his record of voting against his constituents' interests. Then again, it just may be that he doesn't regard the people of his congressional district as his constituents, but just chumps to be thrown a bone now and then while he cuts taxes and doles out pork for his real constituents. You judge.
World-Class Performance - Jackson IBC
Jun 18, 2006 14:32
The opening ceremony for the Jackson International Ballet Competition (IBC) was a hit, with a sellout crowd and a some fine dancers who set the bar very, very high. This is an artistic event that is worth taking a great deal of trouble to see.
The competition will run for two weeks, with the final performances of the winners on July 1 & 2 in Thalia Mara Hall. Jackson hosts the IBC only once every four years (alternating with Varna, Bulgaria, Moscow and Tokyo), so go whenever you can. There are precious few opportunities in this area to see live, world-class performances and this is one of them. For ticket information, call 601-973-9249 or emai Aislynn Thomas, the box office manager.
The competition will run for two weeks, with the final performances of the winners on July 1 & 2 in Thalia Mara Hall. Jackson hosts the IBC only once every four years (alternating with Varna, Bulgaria, Moscow and Tokyo), so go whenever you can. There are precious few opportunities in this area to see live, world-class performances and this is one of them. For ticket information, call 601-973-9249 or emai Aislynn Thomas, the box office manager.
Jackson Housing Undervalued
Jun 17, 2006 11:57
According to a report by Global Insight, the Jackson housing market is 3.6% undervalued in contrast to the overvaluation in many other metropolitan areas. The good news is that homes in Jackson are likely be less affected by a bursting of the national real estate bubble predicted by many economists. This is in stark contrast to the overvaluation of homes in more "popular cities" like Naples, Florida (102.6%), Salinas, California (79.1%) or Medford, Oregon (66.4%), where homeowners could face a catastrophic adjustment.
House Prices in America (Updated for the 1st Quarter of 2006)
House Prices in America (Updated for the 1st Quarter of 2006)
A Great Idea for Urban Crime Control
Jun 02, 2006 06:17
Boston Police can alert local residents while a crime is in progress with a computerized system that automatically sends text messages and emails and receives anonymous reports of crimes. According to the Boston Globe, the cost to get started was only $1,475.00 for a single PC. If the mayor wants to control crime here in Jackson, this might be a good start.
City police to send residents electronic crime alerts
City police to send residents electronic crime alerts
Clarion-Ledger Trying to Destroy Local Publications
May 27, 2006 17:28
One of the less attractive characteristics of our capitalistic system is the modern corporation's obsession with capturing every niche it can without regard for the folks occupying the niche and irrespective of whether it makes much of a difference to the bottom line. I've watched it over and over again with a number of friends being nudged out of a business when a large corporation took an interest.
The Clarion-Ledger is now trying to run free publications in Jackson out of business by offering merchants a stand holding a number of free publications, most of them published by the Clarion-Ledger. The catch: the merchant has to sign a contract not to allow any other magazine stands on his premises for the duration of the contract (1 year) and anyone wanting permission to put their magazine in the rack has to pay the Clarion-Ledger $8.00 per location, either per issue or per month, a prohibitive sum.
It's unethical and probably illegal, but the small publishers could be out of business before the matter could be resolved in the courts.
Here's an article in the Jackson Free Press on what's happening.
The Clarion-Ledger is now trying to run free publications in Jackson out of business by offering merchants a stand holding a number of free publications, most of them published by the Clarion-Ledger. The catch: the merchant has to sign a contract not to allow any other magazine stands on his premises for the duration of the contract (1 year) and anyone wanting permission to put their magazine in the rack has to pay the Clarion-Ledger $8.00 per location, either per issue or per month, a prohibitive sum.
It's unethical and probably illegal, but the small publishers could be out of business before the matter could be resolved in the courts.
Here's an article in the Jackson Free Press on what's happening.
Mississippi Tax Burden Highly Regressive
May 27, 2006 10:09
Mississippi families making $18,000 or less pay 12.1% of their income in state and local sales, property and income taxes, while those making more than $224,000 pay only 5.4%. The two main factors responsible for the inequity in tax burden are the sales tax and the federal deduction offset, which allows taxpayers to deduct state income tax on their federal income tax returns. While the Mississippi income tax is somewhat progressive, that progressivity is more than made up for by the other taxes.
The legislature attempted to remedy the gross disparity this year by reducing sales tax on groceries and raising them on tobacco, but the governor, steadfast in his loyalty towards his former lobbying clients in the tobacco industry, vetoed the bill. This is consistent with the Republican philosophy that the wealthy should pay as few taxes as possible, and preferably no taxes. It also fits with Mississippi's resort to regressive taxes since the 1930s.
So for the flat taxers in the audience: What would we have to change in order to have a reasonably flat tax? Keep in mind that the state is already reducing public services, including Medicaid, because of shortfalls in tax revenue, and we probably have all the casinos that we we should have. How about a lottery?
Here's a radical idea: how about making the tax system fair? Every dollar paid in taxes by a family making $18,000 a year is a gouge out of their ability to lead a decent life. Every dollar of taxes paid by a family making more than $224,000 a year is no more significant than a flyspeck on the hood of their Mercedes. Maybe they will have to buy Dewar's instead of Balvaney. A truly flat tax would improve the finances of the state tremendously, but any tax system that forces a family at the bottom of the economic ladder to pay 12.1% of their income is a moral outrage. Under the current system, those unfortunate families making less than $18,000 may have to choose, not between two brands of scotch whiskey, but between food and medicine.
Mississippi State & Local Taxes in 1995: Shares of family income for non-elderly married couples. (.pdf)
Note: the latest version of Safari will not display the pdf file in the browser. Download it first and then open it if you experience difficulty. Firefox and Opera for the Mac work fine.
Compare different states' taxation burdens
Citizens for Tax Justice
The legislature attempted to remedy the gross disparity this year by reducing sales tax on groceries and raising them on tobacco, but the governor, steadfast in his loyalty towards his former lobbying clients in the tobacco industry, vetoed the bill. This is consistent with the Republican philosophy that the wealthy should pay as few taxes as possible, and preferably no taxes. It also fits with Mississippi's resort to regressive taxes since the 1930s.
So for the flat taxers in the audience: What would we have to change in order to have a reasonably flat tax? Keep in mind that the state is already reducing public services, including Medicaid, because of shortfalls in tax revenue, and we probably have all the casinos that we we should have. How about a lottery?
Henry Fielding (1732)A Lottery is a Taxation,
Upon all the Fools in Creation;
And Heav’n be prais’d,
It is easily rais’d,
Credulity’s always in Fashion;
For, Folly’s a Fund,
Will never lose Ground;
While Fools are so rife in the Nation.
Here's a radical idea: how about making the tax system fair? Every dollar paid in taxes by a family making $18,000 a year is a gouge out of their ability to lead a decent life. Every dollar of taxes paid by a family making more than $224,000 a year is no more significant than a flyspeck on the hood of their Mercedes. Maybe they will have to buy Dewar's instead of Balvaney. A truly flat tax would improve the finances of the state tremendously, but any tax system that forces a family at the bottom of the economic ladder to pay 12.1% of their income is a moral outrage. Under the current system, those unfortunate families making less than $18,000 may have to choose, not between two brands of scotch whiskey, but between food and medicine.
Mississippi State & Local Taxes in 1995: Shares of family income for non-elderly married couples. (.pdf)
Note: the latest version of Safari will not display the pdf file in the browser. Download it first and then open it if you experience difficulty. Firefox and Opera for the Mac work fine.
Compare different states' taxation burdens
Citizens for Tax Justice
JATRAN V - Friday
May 19, 2006 21:17
Today the same bucket of bolts ran the #11 morning route. Only 2 passengers. I sat behind the driver to feel what it is like at the front. It's a little better but not much.
Since I couldn't read or listen to the iPod, I watched the scenery and brainstormed some ideas to implement if I ran the bus system:
1. Feature a large, high resolution map of Jackson on the web site with the routes and each bus stop marked. Click on a bus stop and the schedule for that bus stop pops up. There's a city map on the web site now, but it's low resolution and virtually useless. This would be simple and inexpensive.
2. Set up an interactive voice response system that allows customers to call in, key in the bus route, and get the location of buses and whether they are late or broken down. This would be simple and inexpensive. I've programmed systems like that and it's not very difficult at all.
3. Make it possible for customers to register for special bulletins to be sent via text messages to their cellphones. They could restrict it to certain routes and times. That way, the customer will get a message only if the bus is late or if there is something else the customers needs to know. This would be simple and inexpensive.
4. Put wireless Internet access on buses. Combined with buses that are reasonably stable, quiet and comfortable, this would be a huge draw for the downtown commuter crowd. Ideally it would be free, paid for by an ad that would come up on the initial splash screen when the user logged on. This seems simple enough and should pay for itself, but if it doesn't there could always be a small monthly fee. One other caveat: the seats would have to be far enough apart to allow a laptop to be opened. It's hard to use a laptop in tourist class on some airlines because the seats are jammed too closely together to open the screen all the way. Some travelers I know always request an exit aisle seat for that very reason.
5. Thinking very expansively: A web-based ride request system that would allow customers to enter in advance—say 12 hours— where they live, and where they want to go and when they have to be there. The computer thereupon creates routes and schedules to minimize distance and fuel expenditure as well as the walk from the house to the bus stop and then either emails the customer or calls him on the phone with a recorded message, telling him when and where the bus will stop nearest him. Customers who take the bus every day could put in a standing order. To do it right, each bus would be equipped with a GPS device that would direct the driver along the calculated route, which could change each day depending upon demand. The GPS information and the routes could be displayed on the web site to create a dynamic snapshot of the entire transportation system.
An automated dispatching system such as the one I have imagined might make it possible for buses to handle special events, like concerts and entertainments downtown in the evenings, provided that sufficient personnel were available to drive.
The afternoon trip: Instead of the bus we got a City of Jackson minivan with the #11 sign in the window. Hallelujah!! 6 passengers. Smooth and quiet. I could get real used to this.
The trial week is over and according to my intentions I am now to decide whether to ride the bus almost every morning. It's a hard choice. If the buses were smooth and quiet it would be a no-brainer because, setting aside any cost savings, I love not having to drive to work. There is no enjoyment negotiating I-55 between Meadowbrook Road and Pearl Street at 7:45 AM or shortly after 5 PM. My wife tells me that I am in a far better mood when I arrive home by bus rather than automobile. The city is replacing the old buses, so the ride should become a lot more comfortable in a few months, although I suspect that this route will be one of the last to get the new buses, since so few persons ride.
My inclination is to ride the bus, rattles and all. I'll have to drive the car one day a week on the average, especially when I have an appointment during the day or after work. If anyone reading this lives in north Jackson and works downtown, consider taking the bus. With more demand for bus service, the city will be more inclined to upgrade the buses and the frequency of runs.
And for each rider that leaves the car at home, that's one less car polluting the atmosphere, burning up gasoline, and clogging the streets. And you can't even park for ten dollars a week.
Since I couldn't read or listen to the iPod, I watched the scenery and brainstormed some ideas to implement if I ran the bus system:
1. Feature a large, high resolution map of Jackson on the web site with the routes and each bus stop marked. Click on a bus stop and the schedule for that bus stop pops up. There's a city map on the web site now, but it's low resolution and virtually useless. This would be simple and inexpensive.
2. Set up an interactive voice response system that allows customers to call in, key in the bus route, and get the location of buses and whether they are late or broken down. This would be simple and inexpensive. I've programmed systems like that and it's not very difficult at all.
3. Make it possible for customers to register for special bulletins to be sent via text messages to their cellphones. They could restrict it to certain routes and times. That way, the customer will get a message only if the bus is late or if there is something else the customers needs to know. This would be simple and inexpensive.
4. Put wireless Internet access on buses. Combined with buses that are reasonably stable, quiet and comfortable, this would be a huge draw for the downtown commuter crowd. Ideally it would be free, paid for by an ad that would come up on the initial splash screen when the user logged on. This seems simple enough and should pay for itself, but if it doesn't there could always be a small monthly fee. One other caveat: the seats would have to be far enough apart to allow a laptop to be opened. It's hard to use a laptop in tourist class on some airlines because the seats are jammed too closely together to open the screen all the way. Some travelers I know always request an exit aisle seat for that very reason.
5. Thinking very expansively: A web-based ride request system that would allow customers to enter in advance—say 12 hours— where they live, and where they want to go and when they have to be there. The computer thereupon creates routes and schedules to minimize distance and fuel expenditure as well as the walk from the house to the bus stop and then either emails the customer or calls him on the phone with a recorded message, telling him when and where the bus will stop nearest him. Customers who take the bus every day could put in a standing order. To do it right, each bus would be equipped with a GPS device that would direct the driver along the calculated route, which could change each day depending upon demand. The GPS information and the routes could be displayed on the web site to create a dynamic snapshot of the entire transportation system.
An automated dispatching system such as the one I have imagined might make it possible for buses to handle special events, like concerts and entertainments downtown in the evenings, provided that sufficient personnel were available to drive.
The afternoon trip: Instead of the bus we got a City of Jackson minivan with the #11 sign in the window. Hallelujah!! 6 passengers. Smooth and quiet. I could get real used to this.
The trial week is over and according to my intentions I am now to decide whether to ride the bus almost every morning. It's a hard choice. If the buses were smooth and quiet it would be a no-brainer because, setting aside any cost savings, I love not having to drive to work. There is no enjoyment negotiating I-55 between Meadowbrook Road and Pearl Street at 7:45 AM or shortly after 5 PM. My wife tells me that I am in a far better mood when I arrive home by bus rather than automobile. The city is replacing the old buses, so the ride should become a lot more comfortable in a few months, although I suspect that this route will be one of the last to get the new buses, since so few persons ride.
My inclination is to ride the bus, rattles and all. I'll have to drive the car one day a week on the average, especially when I have an appointment during the day or after work. If anyone reading this lives in north Jackson and works downtown, consider taking the bus. With more demand for bus service, the city will be more inclined to upgrade the buses and the frequency of runs.
And for each rider that leaves the car at home, that's one less car polluting the atmosphere, burning up gasoline, and clogging the streets. And you can't even park for ten dollars a week.
A Governor that Doesn't Believe in Pardons
May 19, 2006 20:03
Haley Barbour has declared that he doesn't believe in pardons. I haven't heard his reasons, but whatever they may be they can't possibly be morally squared with some incontrovertible facts:
1. Sometimes innocent persons are convicted and sent to prison or execution. No system of justice is perfect. Even a fair system makes mistakes. That's what pardons are intended for. If Barbour truly believes this doesn't happen he is a fool and shouldn't be governor. Apparently he does believe this happens because he joined in the petition to set aside Clyde Kenner's conviction. If he believes that the innocent should rot in prison, then he is morally blind and shouldn't be governor.
2. The strict application of the criminal law often leads to a sentence grossly disproportionate to the seriousness of the crime or the injury. Recidivist sentencing often puts a person in prison for many years for relatively minor crimes, all on the basis of crimes committed many years before. The pardon power was created to correct these mistakes in the interest of justice.
3. Some prisoners deserve mercy, either because of ill health or some extraordinary service rendered either before or during imprisonment.
There are other grounds for pardon, but the point is that the power to pardon was established for the purpose of remedying these injustices. To refuse to pardon for any reason at all is inexcusable. The Good Book has much to say about mercy and how only the merciful are fit to receive mercy. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. " Matt. 5:7 In fact, the Good Book has very little good to say about imprisonment: "... he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;" Isa. 61:1. For such a Christian state, we sure seem to be stingy with mercy and generous with the prison industry.
One last possibility: Barbour himself strongly supports private, for-profit prisons in the state. Pardoning is obviously bad for the prison business.
1. Sometimes innocent persons are convicted and sent to prison or execution. No system of justice is perfect. Even a fair system makes mistakes. That's what pardons are intended for. If Barbour truly believes this doesn't happen he is a fool and shouldn't be governor. Apparently he does believe this happens because he joined in the petition to set aside Clyde Kenner's conviction. If he believes that the innocent should rot in prison, then he is morally blind and shouldn't be governor.
2. The strict application of the criminal law often leads to a sentence grossly disproportionate to the seriousness of the crime or the injury. Recidivist sentencing often puts a person in prison for many years for relatively minor crimes, all on the basis of crimes committed many years before. The pardon power was created to correct these mistakes in the interest of justice.
3. Some prisoners deserve mercy, either because of ill health or some extraordinary service rendered either before or during imprisonment.
There are other grounds for pardon, but the point is that the power to pardon was established for the purpose of remedying these injustices. To refuse to pardon for any reason at all is inexcusable. The Good Book has much to say about mercy and how only the merciful are fit to receive mercy. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. " Matt. 5:7 In fact, the Good Book has very little good to say about imprisonment: "... he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;" Isa. 61:1. For such a Christian state, we sure seem to be stingy with mercy and generous with the prison industry.
One last possibility: Barbour himself strongly supports private, for-profit prisons in the state. Pardoning is obviously bad for the prison business.
Wednesday: Missed the Bus
May 17, 2006 22:37
I arrived at the bus stop too late, so I had to walk home and take the car. Ultimately, it was a good thing, because I had forgotten that I had made an appointment on Lakeland near Airport Road at 5:30 and the bus doesn't go there. The bad thing was that it took thirty minutes in standstill traffic to get from Ridgewood Road to Airport Road, about 3 miles. The entire time I was sitting there, waiting for the traffic to move, I kept asking myself "are we fighting in Iraq for the privilege of doing this?"
Surely the Flowood city fathers don't like a four-mile traffic jam the length of their city. Nobody's buying anything and it pollutes the air. The timing of the traffic lights is abominable. Don't they ever drive on their own streets?
Surely the Flowood city fathers don't like a four-mile traffic jam the length of their city. Nobody's buying anything and it pollutes the air. The timing of the traffic lights is abominable. Don't they ever drive on their own streets?
JATRAN Day II
May 16, 2006 18:53
Same bus as yesterday morning, different driver. There were four passengers today. The floor was clean but there was a cardboard box and a plastic bucket behind the passenger seats in the handicapped area, both full of trash.
I had not fully appreciated the dilapidated state of the bus yesterday morning. The aisle seat I first sat on sagged sideways and I had to relocate. The windows clattered as before and the two-way radio seemed to be turned up twice as loud. If I continue having to ride this bus, I'll have to use earplugs or sound-cancelling earbuds.
The afternoon bus was the same type as the morning bus but only two years old according to the driver. The air conditioning was almost too cold, but otherwise the bus was up to snuff. Some of the equipment in the rear for the handicapped was loose and rattled, but overall the noise level was acceptable. It 's hard to understand why they can't fix the noise when all they have to do is tie up some loose belts and fasteners.
The ride was tolerable but not smooth by any measure, especially when we drove over the potholes in front of UMC. A chiropractor's delight.
Impression for day II: It is simply incredible that bus manufacturers have not been able or willing to make urban buses with decent suspension systems. Or is it just that the City of Jackson is too cheap to buy them? A technology that can land a spaceship on Mars and broadcast high-quality pictures back to Earth for months can, if it wishes to, build a comfortable public minibus. If not, it's a great opening for somebody, because the demand for public transit will mushroom in a few years.
The folks in Curitiba, Brazil have done some great things with far less than what we have here in Jackson (.pdf).
I had not fully appreciated the dilapidated state of the bus yesterday morning. The aisle seat I first sat on sagged sideways and I had to relocate. The windows clattered as before and the two-way radio seemed to be turned up twice as loud. If I continue having to ride this bus, I'll have to use earplugs or sound-cancelling earbuds.
The afternoon bus was the same type as the morning bus but only two years old according to the driver. The air conditioning was almost too cold, but otherwise the bus was up to snuff. Some of the equipment in the rear for the handicapped was loose and rattled, but overall the noise level was acceptable. It 's hard to understand why they can't fix the noise when all they have to do is tie up some loose belts and fasteners.
The ride was tolerable but not smooth by any measure, especially when we drove over the potholes in front of UMC. A chiropractor's delight.
Impression for day II: It is simply incredible that bus manufacturers have not been able or willing to make urban buses with decent suspension systems. Or is it just that the City of Jackson is too cheap to buy them? A technology that can land a spaceship on Mars and broadcast high-quality pictures back to Earth for months can, if it wishes to, build a comfortable public minibus. If not, it's a great opening for somebody, because the demand for public transit will mushroom in a few years.
The folks in Curitiba, Brazil have done some great things with far less than what we have here in Jackson (.pdf).
I Rode the JATRAN Today
May 15, 2006 20:16
I rode the bus to work and back today, the first time in 25 years, partly to see what it was like and partly to see if it was a viable alternative to driving. There is something to be said for public transportation: it's a lot safer and less stressful than negotiating the I-55 grand prix each morning and afternoon. It also gives one time to read, meditate or even socialize with one's fellow passengers, all for a senior fare of fifty cents one-way. At least, that's how I remembered it from the early '80s, when I practiced law downtown. There were usually three or four young lawyers on the bus, along with several clerks from the bankruptcy court and a scattering of office workers from the banks and insurance companies. It made a pleasant crowd. You could talk or you could read, or both. I read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on the way to work and back.
Eventually the law practice required more mobility during the day than public transit offered, so I reluctantly began driving to work and paying for parking (and parking tickets). At one time the city provided a free downtown connector bus with a circular route around the center of town, which I occasionally took if I had the time. On a particularly hot summer day, I remember boarding the bus to find that it had no air conditioning and must have been 105°. How the driver lived through the day is still a mystery.
Today's bus ride would be an exercise in nostalgia. I walked to Ridgewood Road and hailed the Number 11 bus just south of Northside Drive. It was a small bus, the kind one sees carrying seniors around with a lift in the rear for wheelchairs. There were 16 regular seats and 4 more that were folded down but looked as though they could be used. The passenger seats had safety belts. There were only two passengers the whole trip, one of which was myself.
The bus itself had seen better days. It was acceptably clean, however, but the windows needed washing on the outside. A front panel over the window containing a two-way radio and electrical switches was hanging loose and looked as though it might fall off anytime. The fasteners for the windows were broken and the windows rattled whenever the road was bumpy, which, thanks to our shifting soil and the ravages of the climate, was nearly continuous. The shock absorbers had obviously worn out years ago, and the bus pitched and rolled whenever the driver took it over twenty-five. He was a pleasant soul, by the way.
Reading was out of the question because of the pitching and rolling and conversation was impossible because of the noise. I found that I could listen to an audio book on my iPod by turning up the volume.
The bus arrived at the corner of Amite and Lamar at the scheduled time, 7:45, time to walk to the office and make a pot of coffee before anyone else made it in.
Promptly at 5:15, the Number 11 bus crossed Lamar Street going east on Capitol. I had to wave it down; apparently the driver didn't expect many passengers.
It was a larger bus, with about 25 seats. I sat just behind the side door over one of the rear wheels, mainly to inspect the bus and its passengers during the trip. Normally, the closer to the front, the smoother and quieter the ride, since the diesel engine that powers the bus is under the rear seat. This bus was not as clean and spiffy as the morning bus, but I attribute that to the time of day, since this was the last outward run for this route. The floors had accumulated quite a bit of litter and, like the morning bus, the windows needed washing. The air conditioning was on and the bus was comfortably cool, but I could smell the familiar faint odor of diesel exhaust where I was sitting.
The ride was smoother than the morning ride, probably because it was a larger bus. There were five passengers, including me. One of them boarded at UMC.
In spite of the smoother ride the afternoon bus was far worse than the morning ride because of the noise. The roar of the motor was bad enough, but the really obnoxious sounds were coming from the two-way radio in the front that the bus system uses for communications. It screeched incessantly and unintelligibly the entire trip. The iPod was useless, because it hurt my ears if I turned it up enough to hear over the ambient noise.
My initial impression of the JATRAN is not favorable, as you can see, but many of the unpleasantries I encountered could be solved by adequate maintenance. I suspect that the city has been reluctant to properly fund a bus system with as little passenger traffic as I saw today. Without more comfortable buses, however, it will be hard to attract passengers even if gas sells for $10.00 a gallon. I live about six miles from work, so walking to work every day is out of the question, but the commute would take less than half an hour by bicycle.
What to do? The first step would be for the mayor and members of the city council to ride the buses themselves to see just what a sorry system we now have. Of course, the ideal measure would be to require council members to ride the bus from their homes to all city council meetings and the mayor to ride the bus every day to his office. That would lead to immediate action. We know that won't happen, though, since the city counsel would have to enact such a ordinance. But it's fun to imagine.
Planning, establishing and maintaining a decent public transportation system in these times is a visionary undertaking, and it is unrealistic to expect vision out of our city government. Not only is the municipal form of government structured to defeat visionary undertakings but the persons we have elected to positions of responsibility are outstanding only in their lack of imagination in anticipating and meeting long-range problems. This is not to say these are bad or unintelligent people; the system doesn't reward this kind of thinking, so it is unrealistic to expect especially creative and imaginative persons to seek political office.
Jackson, as much as any city its size, depends almost completely on the motorcar to make it work. In the near future, the rise in gas prices will harm this city and its citizens in ways that we can only begin to imagine. It is not alarmist to predict than there will shortly come a time when many working people will be forced to choose between gas for their car and food for their children, because they can't get to work any other way. The inevitability of a peak and decline in world oil production takes little imagination, however, but solving the problems that will result from that decline will take a great deal of imagination. An efficient public transit system is only a tiny but essential part of the solution.
If reality of the coming energy crisis has not penetrated city hall's consciousness it is up to the rest of us to administer reality therapy and to use our collective abilities to imagine an energy-scarce but livable world. If enough of us demand change, then there will be change. It will not come easily because all change, no matter how beneficial, generally costs someone who profits from the status quo. Political beliefs tend to follow the wallet.
The accumulating evidence this time is compelling, though; if we do not immediately begin reducing our dependence on cheap energy, everyone will lose. The free market be damned. This crisis will not automatically adjust itself unless we are prepared to see mass suffering and even mass starvation as the four horsemen balance supply and demand using their own grisly methods.
The good news is that there is still time to avert the ride of the four horsemen. We simply must decide to do it.
Eventually the law practice required more mobility during the day than public transit offered, so I reluctantly began driving to work and paying for parking (and parking tickets). At one time the city provided a free downtown connector bus with a circular route around the center of town, which I occasionally took if I had the time. On a particularly hot summer day, I remember boarding the bus to find that it had no air conditioning and must have been 105°. How the driver lived through the day is still a mystery.
Today's bus ride would be an exercise in nostalgia. I walked to Ridgewood Road and hailed the Number 11 bus just south of Northside Drive. It was a small bus, the kind one sees carrying seniors around with a lift in the rear for wheelchairs. There were 16 regular seats and 4 more that were folded down but looked as though they could be used. The passenger seats had safety belts. There were only two passengers the whole trip, one of which was myself.
The bus itself had seen better days. It was acceptably clean, however, but the windows needed washing on the outside. A front panel over the window containing a two-way radio and electrical switches was hanging loose and looked as though it might fall off anytime. The fasteners for the windows were broken and the windows rattled whenever the road was bumpy, which, thanks to our shifting soil and the ravages of the climate, was nearly continuous. The shock absorbers had obviously worn out years ago, and the bus pitched and rolled whenever the driver took it over twenty-five. He was a pleasant soul, by the way.
Reading was out of the question because of the pitching and rolling and conversation was impossible because of the noise. I found that I could listen to an audio book on my iPod by turning up the volume.
The bus arrived at the corner of Amite and Lamar at the scheduled time, 7:45, time to walk to the office and make a pot of coffee before anyone else made it in.
Promptly at 5:15, the Number 11 bus crossed Lamar Street going east on Capitol. I had to wave it down; apparently the driver didn't expect many passengers.
It was a larger bus, with about 25 seats. I sat just behind the side door over one of the rear wheels, mainly to inspect the bus and its passengers during the trip. Normally, the closer to the front, the smoother and quieter the ride, since the diesel engine that powers the bus is under the rear seat. This bus was not as clean and spiffy as the morning bus, but I attribute that to the time of day, since this was the last outward run for this route. The floors had accumulated quite a bit of litter and, like the morning bus, the windows needed washing. The air conditioning was on and the bus was comfortably cool, but I could smell the familiar faint odor of diesel exhaust where I was sitting.
The ride was smoother than the morning ride, probably because it was a larger bus. There were five passengers, including me. One of them boarded at UMC.
In spite of the smoother ride the afternoon bus was far worse than the morning ride because of the noise. The roar of the motor was bad enough, but the really obnoxious sounds were coming from the two-way radio in the front that the bus system uses for communications. It screeched incessantly and unintelligibly the entire trip. The iPod was useless, because it hurt my ears if I turned it up enough to hear over the ambient noise.
My initial impression of the JATRAN is not favorable, as you can see, but many of the unpleasantries I encountered could be solved by adequate maintenance. I suspect that the city has been reluctant to properly fund a bus system with as little passenger traffic as I saw today. Without more comfortable buses, however, it will be hard to attract passengers even if gas sells for $10.00 a gallon. I live about six miles from work, so walking to work every day is out of the question, but the commute would take less than half an hour by bicycle.
What to do? The first step would be for the mayor and members of the city council to ride the buses themselves to see just what a sorry system we now have. Of course, the ideal measure would be to require council members to ride the bus from their homes to all city council meetings and the mayor to ride the bus every day to his office. That would lead to immediate action. We know that won't happen, though, since the city counsel would have to enact such a ordinance. But it's fun to imagine.
Planning, establishing and maintaining a decent public transportation system in these times is a visionary undertaking, and it is unrealistic to expect vision out of our city government. Not only is the municipal form of government structured to defeat visionary undertakings but the persons we have elected to positions of responsibility are outstanding only in their lack of imagination in anticipating and meeting long-range problems. This is not to say these are bad or unintelligent people; the system doesn't reward this kind of thinking, so it is unrealistic to expect especially creative and imaginative persons to seek political office.
Jackson, as much as any city its size, depends almost completely on the motorcar to make it work. In the near future, the rise in gas prices will harm this city and its citizens in ways that we can only begin to imagine. It is not alarmist to predict than there will shortly come a time when many working people will be forced to choose between gas for their car and food for their children, because they can't get to work any other way. The inevitability of a peak and decline in world oil production takes little imagination, however, but solving the problems that will result from that decline will take a great deal of imagination. An efficient public transit system is only a tiny but essential part of the solution.
If reality of the coming energy crisis has not penetrated city hall's consciousness it is up to the rest of us to administer reality therapy and to use our collective abilities to imagine an energy-scarce but livable world. If enough of us demand change, then there will be change. It will not come easily because all change, no matter how beneficial, generally costs someone who profits from the status quo. Political beliefs tend to follow the wallet.
The accumulating evidence this time is compelling, though; if we do not immediately begin reducing our dependence on cheap energy, everyone will lose. The free market be damned. This crisis will not automatically adjust itself unless we are prepared to see mass suffering and even mass starvation as the four horsemen balance supply and demand using their own grisly methods.
The good news is that there is still time to avert the ride of the four horsemen. We simply must decide to do it.
Jackson Water/Sewer Bill
Jan 29, 2006 17:19
We received our water bill Saturday, exactly ten days after the due date printed on the bill. The envelope bears no evidence of when it was sent. Has anyone else had this problem?
Social Justice
Jan 22, 2006 07:52
Society is best served by adhering to principles that bestow long-term benefits. A society can be said to be healthy to the extent that its citizens believe in and act upon such principles. Social justice is one of those principles. Unjust societies are brittle because they require oppression to maintain the unjust conditions; the few are afraid of the many who seethe in anger at their oppressors.
Today, most people believe that they will lose dearly if real social justice is established. That the middle class still believes this falsehood after having endured twenty-five years of conservative economic policy is a tribute to the power of the media to shape the public mind. The middle class has been taught to believe that they deserve what they have solely because of their own hard work and that the poor are lazy and shiftless and therefore deserve their poverty.
To preserve this illusion we restrict the poor to the inner cities where we cannot see how hard they work and how little they are rewarded for their hard work. We cannot be allowed to realize their humanity, lest our eyes be opened to injustice. Making them foreign allows us to project our shadow side onto them, much like we have been recently encouraged to project it onto Arabs and Moslems.
The result: walled communities surrounded by poverty and decay. The well-off and even the moderately well-off are afraid. They are rightly afraid of the underprivileged because they are a threat to peace and security. But they are equally afraid that real social justice, which is the only solution to our deepening slide into lawlessness and anarchy, would threaten their precarious debt-ridden standard of living. Being in fear of both disease and cure and blinded to more attractive options by their conservative or neo-conservative philosophy, the middle class continues to support the very policies that if not reversed will ultimately destroy it.
Nature regulates itself by negative feedback loops. The checks and balances written into the U. S. Constitution can be thought of as a structure of negative feedback loops, designed to keep the system from running too far off the road. Positive feedback loops are inherently unstable and threaten systems, like cancer and nuclear fission. In the social realm, fear almost always creates a positive feedback loop, because it feeds on itself. Dictators are afraid of their people and consequently do the very things that cause them to be even more afraid of their people.
Today, most people believe that they will lose dearly if real social justice is established. That the middle class still believes this falsehood after having endured twenty-five years of conservative economic policy is a tribute to the power of the media to shape the public mind. The middle class has been taught to believe that they deserve what they have solely because of their own hard work and that the poor are lazy and shiftless and therefore deserve their poverty.
To preserve this illusion we restrict the poor to the inner cities where we cannot see how hard they work and how little they are rewarded for their hard work. We cannot be allowed to realize their humanity, lest our eyes be opened to injustice. Making them foreign allows us to project our shadow side onto them, much like we have been recently encouraged to project it onto Arabs and Moslems.
The result: walled communities surrounded by poverty and decay. The well-off and even the moderately well-off are afraid. They are rightly afraid of the underprivileged because they are a threat to peace and security. But they are equally afraid that real social justice, which is the only solution to our deepening slide into lawlessness and anarchy, would threaten their precarious debt-ridden standard of living. Being in fear of both disease and cure and blinded to more attractive options by their conservative or neo-conservative philosophy, the middle class continues to support the very policies that if not reversed will ultimately destroy it.
Nature regulates itself by negative feedback loops. The checks and balances written into the U. S. Constitution can be thought of as a structure of negative feedback loops, designed to keep the system from running too far off the road. Positive feedback loops are inherently unstable and threaten systems, like cancer and nuclear fission. In the social realm, fear almost always creates a positive feedback loop, because it feeds on itself. Dictators are afraid of their people and consequently do the very things that cause them to be even more afraid of their people.
How Would a Great City Act?
Dec 17, 2005 21:32
The story is told that in the '30s Thomas Watson and the executive leadership of IBM asked themselves what it would take to make IBM a great corporation. They decided that in order to become a great corporation, they had to think and act like a great corporation. To many observers at the time, it must have seemed like hubris, but the result speaks for itself. IBM became a great corporation and dominated the computer business for decades.
Jackson has many problems, problems that it shares with other cities: urban slums, suburban sprawl, crime, and a pervasive sense that this city is merely an agglomeration of persons and businesses joined together for economic convenience. There is no sense of common destiny, a shared belief that this city is worth something apart from its value as a place to work and make money.
Great cities are not like that. They have uniqueness, often the result of their history, but uniqueness is not sufficient. Houston is unique but it is not a great city. Size is not a requirement; the city of Florence, Italy, one of the the great centers of civilization in the 15th Century, had at the height of its power fewer people than Jackson has today.
Our leaders and our people don't think in these terms, but until we do, Jackson will go nowhere. We must learn to think and act like a great city.
It is not enough to scrape barnacles off the hull of a ship when the ship is headed in the wrong direction.
Robert Putnam of Harvard University has been studying this subject. Two books of his, Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone, make a significant contribution to our knowledge of what civic institutions and practices are conducive to orderly and prosperous communities and we ignore them at our peril. Although Bowling Alone has been Putnam's most popular and controversial work, I think that the earlier book, a study of Italian provincial governments, is more useful.
The task before us is to start the discussion. I want to live here the rest of my life, but at the rate this city is deteriorating, that won't be possible.
Link: The Bowling Alone web site: http://www.bowlingalone.com/
Jackson has many problems, problems that it shares with other cities: urban slums, suburban sprawl, crime, and a pervasive sense that this city is merely an agglomeration of persons and businesses joined together for economic convenience. There is no sense of common destiny, a shared belief that this city is worth something apart from its value as a place to work and make money.
Great cities are not like that. They have uniqueness, often the result of their history, but uniqueness is not sufficient. Houston is unique but it is not a great city. Size is not a requirement; the city of Florence, Italy, one of the the great centers of civilization in the 15th Century, had at the height of its power fewer people than Jackson has today.
Our leaders and our people don't think in these terms, but until we do, Jackson will go nowhere. We must learn to think and act like a great city.
It is not enough to scrape barnacles off the hull of a ship when the ship is headed in the wrong direction.
Robert Putnam of Harvard University has been studying this subject. Two books of his, Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone, make a significant contribution to our knowledge of what civic institutions and practices are conducive to orderly and prosperous communities and we ignore them at our peril. Although Bowling Alone has been Putnam's most popular and controversial work, I think that the earlier book, a study of Italian provincial governments, is more useful.
The task before us is to start the discussion. I want to live here the rest of my life, but at the rate this city is deteriorating, that won't be possible.
Link: The Bowling Alone web site: http://www.bowlingalone.com/
Hospitals and TV
Dec 16, 2005 17:02
I could never understand why doctors' offices and hospital waiting rooms have TVs that are always turned on. Listening to a soap opera, a quiz show, or a human interest talk show where everyone cries (no doubt on cue) is usually the last thing I want to do when I'm sitting there, waiting to see a doctor. This afternoon I was forced to endure such an auditory assault while waiting for a procedure the preparation for which is purging oneself the night before and refraining from eating until the procedure is over, a process that leaves one hungry and in a bad mood. The best that could be said of the hospital is that its TV wasn't turned up all the way, unlike an after-hours clinic in north Jackson that placed a TV blaring medical infomercials at top volume in front of hapless patients waiting to be seen. What's worse, it couldn't be turned down and the staff refused to turn it off. Can't the medical profession figure out that this isn't a good thing, especially when people aren't feeling well?
I complain when I am subjected to this type of treatment, to no result. If everyone complained there might be progress.
I complain when I am subjected to this type of treatment, to no result. If everyone complained there might be progress.
It's Going to Create a Social Crisis
Nov 25, 2005 22:17
It looks like things will get a lot worse on the coast before they get better. The Washington Post is reporting that tenants, their jobs destroyed and their income cut off, are now being evicted in large numbers.
Apparently FEMA is strapped for funds, unable to help and unlikely to have its budget increased by the Republican Congress, which obviously regards tax cuts and overseas military adventures of higher priority than the suffering of one of the reddest congressional districts in the nation. I suppose this is an example of tough love.
And, as always, the land developers are calling the shots. Get the riff-raff off the golf course. First things first.
... this politically conservative state has a threadbare safety net. Two weeks ago, county officials lifted an informal moratorium on evictions. Tenants cannot claim rent breaks for water-damaged apartments. One can sit now in housing courts in Gulfport and Biloxi and watch judges order the evictions of hundreds of tenants, often with a speed that startles the tenants.
"There's a hanging judge mentality and, my God, it's going to create a social crisis," said John C. Jopling, a lawyer with the Mississippi Center for Justice, which represented a few tenants.
The mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi's second largest city, recently removed a tent city of contract workers from a golf course. And under pressure from developers, he balked at signing off on emergency trailer parks, even though the inhabitants would be displaced city residents. "It creates an environment people don't want to live around," Gulfport developer Don Hall told the Harrison County Board of Supervisors recently, according to news reports.
Apparently FEMA is strapped for funds, unable to help and unlikely to have its budget increased by the Republican Congress, which obviously regards tax cuts and overseas military adventures of higher priority than the suffering of one of the reddest congressional districts in the nation. I suppose this is an example of tough love.
And, as always, the land developers are calling the shots. Get the riff-raff off the golf course. First things first.
Haley Barbour and China
Nov 25, 2005 18:55
I came across this old article from Time Magazine about how a Hong Kong company infused a lot of money into the RNC just before the 1996 elections.
At Least Somebody is Scrutinizing Barbour
Oct 19, 2005 18:21
Haley Barbour, former candidate for Senator, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, former principal of a major lobbying firm in Washington, and now governor of the State of Mississippi, has some questions to answer and the Jackson Free Press is asking many of the most important questions. First and foremost, given Barbour's connections with his lobbying clients and his close association with indicted leader of the U. S. House of Representatives, Tom DeLay, we need to know where is his primary loyalty, whether it is with the people of this state or with the corporations and wealthy individuals that have up till now been his source of income and his political soul-buddies. The JFP has done a good job telling the story and asking the questions in Haley's Unholy Alliance.
Anti-Torture Amendment
Oct 06, 2005 21:59
The roll call vote is here. Only nine voted against an amendment to the Defense Appropriation Act to forbid torture by our armed forces and to affirm the binding authority of the The United Nations Convention Against Torture. 90 senators voted "Aye."
Here's the text of the amendment:
Here is a list of the senators that voted against it:
Here's the text of the amendment:
TEXT OF AMENDMENTS -- (Senate - October 03, 2005)
(a) In General.--No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the
[Page: S10909] GPO's PDF
United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
(b) Construction.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.
(c) Limitation on Supersedure.--The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section.
(d) Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Defined.--In this section, the term ``cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment'' means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.
Here is a list of the senators that voted against it:
Allard (R-CO)
Bond (R-MO)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stevens (R-AK)
Yes, that's our own Thad Cochran, colored red for emphasis, voting against anti-torture legislation. Next time you happen to run into him, ask him why he is one of only nine senators that voted for torture.
And the next time you run into Trent Lott, tell him how much you appreciate his voting in favor of the anti-torture amendment.
A Very Different View of the Aftermath of Katrina
Sep 17, 2005 08:49
By way of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Left Turn magazine has published a series of on-the-site articles by Jordan Flaherty from the viewpoint of the folks who stayed, either because they had to or because they wanted to. They paint both a hopeful and a sobering picture of what happened and what is going on now, a picture very different from the one on TV. Instead of anarchy and widespread lawlessness, Flaherty reports that people, by and large, came together and supported one another, even in the Superdome.
The role of law enforcement and other authorities is problematic. The despicable actions of the sheriff in threatening refugees trying to escape the waters by walking over the bridge into Gretna has been publicized to some degree, but the behavior of the local police and the military troops towards the persons remaining in the city has been blacked out.
The public's beliefs about what is happening in New Orleans create a context in which plans for the rebuilding of New Orleans--already agreed upon by the powers that be--will seem reasonable, necessary and, well, inevitable. Think about that as you read these articles and compare the observations of ordinary people on the ground with what you have been told by media personalities paid to tell you the official version of the facts. Then watch, over the next few months, and see what happens. Watch how the reconstruction of the city will be based upon the official version. Take note of who benefits.
Let us imagine this "New" New Orleans, created in the corporate, white upper middle class image, a city purged of the very class of people that created the blues and the unique culture that has always made New Orleans the one city in the U.S. that, as Umberto Eco said, was truly itself and not a copy of something else. Who would have the slightest desire to visit an ethnically cleansed New Orleans?* The thought of spending time in that hot, steaming place, bereft of the architecture, the music, the food and, most of all, that indefinable but infinitely alluring spirit of easy living and decadent civilization that can be found nowhere else, is enough to sadden the most stouthearted.
Here are the URLs of the articles in case they move from the front page of the magazine:
Back inside New Orleans (9/12/2005)
Mourning for New Orleans (9/9/2005)
Don't Let New Orleans Die (9/4/2005)
Notes from Inside New Orleans (9/2/2005)
* Yes, I used the term "ethnically cleansed" deliberately. The plans for New Orleans appear to include ethnic cleansing. We bombed the Serbs on the charge that they were engaged in ethnic cleansing.
According to a report that's been circulated, Denise Young, one of those trapped in the convention center told family members, "yes, there were young men with guns there, but they organized the crowd. They went to Canal Street and 'looted,' and brought back food and water for the old people and the babies, because nobody had eaten in days. When the police rolled down windows and yelled out 'the buses are coming,' the young men with guns organized the crowd in order: old people in front, women and children next, men in the back,just so that when the buses came, there would be priorities of who got out first." But the buses never came. "Lots of people being dropped off, nobody being picked up. Cops passing by, speeding off. We thought we were being left to die."
The role of law enforcement and other authorities is problematic. The despicable actions of the sheriff in threatening refugees trying to escape the waters by walking over the bridge into Gretna has been publicized to some degree, but the behavior of the local police and the military troops towards the persons remaining in the city has been blacked out.
I asked Okra, in his house off of Piety Street, what the biggest problem has been. He said, "It's been the police - they've lost the last restraints on their behavior they had, and gotten a license to go wild. They can do anything they want. I saw one cop beat a guy so hard that he almost took his ear off. And this was someone just trying to walk home."
Walking through the streets, I witnessed hundreds of soldiers patrolling the streets. Everyone I spoke to said that soldiers were coming to their house at least once a day, trying to convince them to leave, bringing stories of disease and quarantine and violence. I didn't see or speak to any soldiers involved in any clean up or rebuilding.
The public's beliefs about what is happening in New Orleans create a context in which plans for the rebuilding of New Orleans--already agreed upon by the powers that be--will seem reasonable, necessary and, well, inevitable. Think about that as you read these articles and compare the observations of ordinary people on the ground with what you have been told by media personalities paid to tell you the official version of the facts. Then watch, over the next few months, and see what happens. Watch how the reconstruction of the city will be based upon the official version. Take note of who benefits.
Already, the usual forces of corporate restructuring are lining up. Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary has begun work on a $500 million US Navy contract for emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and marine facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Blackwell Security - the folks that brought you Abu Ghraib - are patrolling the streets of our city.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the rich white elite is already planning their vision of New Orleans' reconstruction, from the super-rich gated compounds of Audubon Place Uptown, where they have set up a heliport and brought in a heavily-armed Israeli security company. "The new city must be something very different," one of these city leaders was quoted as saying, "with better services and fewer poor people. Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically."
Let us imagine this "New" New Orleans, created in the corporate, white upper middle class image, a city purged of the very class of people that created the blues and the unique culture that has always made New Orleans the one city in the U.S. that, as Umberto Eco said, was truly itself and not a copy of something else. Who would have the slightest desire to visit an ethnically cleansed New Orleans?* The thought of spending time in that hot, steaming place, bereft of the architecture, the music, the food and, most of all, that indefinable but infinitely alluring spirit of easy living and decadent civilization that can be found nowhere else, is enough to sadden the most stouthearted.
Here are the URLs of the articles in case they move from the front page of the magazine:
Back inside New Orleans (9/12/2005)
Mourning for New Orleans (9/9/2005)
Don't Let New Orleans Die (9/4/2005)
Notes from Inside New Orleans (9/2/2005)
* Yes, I used the term "ethnically cleansed" deliberately. The plans for New Orleans appear to include ethnic cleansing. We bombed the Serbs on the charge that they were engaged in ethnic cleansing.
About a Third of LA National Guard in Iraq
Aug 28, 2005 21:59
Although a third of Louisiana's National Guardsmen are in Iraq or preparing to go to Iraq, officials say that the National Guard can handle any disaster that might occur.
Our Prayers Go Out
Aug 28, 2005 21:47
As I write this, the eye of hurricane Katrina is inexorably moving towards New Orleans with a force that will probably destroy the city. That which the wind does not destroy, the flood waters will. Most of the population has evacuated, but as many as 100,000 persons are trapped in the city with no means of transportation to get out and with very few options for shelter. People are crowding into the Superdome, which should afford some safety as long as the roof does not blow off.
New Orleans, being largely below sea-level, depends upon large pumps to keep the water at bay. It is a virtual certainty that the pumps will fail this evening because of either flooding or power failure. The city and its remaining inhabitants wait unprotected in the night, hoping to survive until the storm passes over. Many of them will not survive. Most of the dead will be the poor who did not have automobiles or who stayed to work. They are trapped.
The heart of this nation goes out to those unfortunate persons. We hope for a miracle--that the hurricane veers away from New Orleans, that its fury abates before making landfall, that the damage and loss of life will not be a great as predicted, or that the floodwaters do not carry away too much. It will indeed take a miracle.
God watch over you. You have done what you could and now it's in His hands. As for our part, let us resolve to prepare our nation for future disasters so that when and where another one strikes, hundreds of thousands of persons -- usually the least fortunate of our citizens -- are not left to the mercy of the elements.
New Orleans, being largely below sea-level, depends upon large pumps to keep the water at bay. It is a virtual certainty that the pumps will fail this evening because of either flooding or power failure. The city and its remaining inhabitants wait unprotected in the night, hoping to survive until the storm passes over. Many of them will not survive. Most of the dead will be the poor who did not have automobiles or who stayed to work. They are trapped.
The heart of this nation goes out to those unfortunate persons. We hope for a miracle--that the hurricane veers away from New Orleans, that its fury abates before making landfall, that the damage and loss of life will not be a great as predicted, or that the floodwaters do not carry away too much. It will indeed take a miracle.
God watch over you. You have done what you could and now it's in His hands. As for our part, let us resolve to prepare our nation for future disasters so that when and where another one strikes, hundreds of thousands of persons -- usually the least fortunate of our citizens -- are not left to the mercy of the elements.
Who Votes for the People of Mississippi in Congress?
Jul 29, 2005 10:38
I received an email from the President of the Association of Trial Lawyers in America which I reproduce in part:
"Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, the so-called HEALTH Act, which would allow drug companies, HMOs, nursing homes, doctors and hospitals to avoid full accountability when they cause injury or death.
"Although the bill passed, backers of the bill failed to pass the bill by the sizable margin they hoped might jump start the bill in the Senate.
"In fact, despite a year of relentless lobbying by doctors and insurers, as well as drug companies, nursing homes and HMOs, there was virtually no increased support for this legislation.
"A year ago, when the House passed this same bill, 229 Members voted in favor of it. Today, 230 Members voted in favor. This marks the fourth time since September 2002 that the House has passed this legislation."
___________________________________
This is the object of the "tort reform" exponents: make it impossible for badly injured people to receive fair compensation for pain and suffering caused by them, and when their really egregious or deliberate negligence injures the patient, exempt them from punitive damages
Punitive damages disrupt business plans. Injuries and compensatory damage awards that arise from them can be predicted statistically, enabling insurance actuaries to set premiums at a profitable rate to protect their clients. Punitive damages awards, on the other hand, are not predictable and are intended to make an example. When Ford was sued about 20 years ago for making the Pinto with an exposed gas tank prone to rupture and burn when the car was rear-ended, a company memo obtained by the plaintiff's lawyers during discovery revealed that the company was well aware of the danger and made the cold-blooded decision to go ahead and make it with the dangerous design, because the potential savings in cost were considerably more than it could expect to pay out in lawsuits and legal expenses. Of course Ford didn't plan for that memo to see the light of day and when it was put before twelve citizens in a court of law, they awarded the plaintiffs $90 million in punitive damages, their estimate of Ford's cost savings. The verdict, although later reduced on appeal, was a fair one, considering Ford's deliberately manufacturing a dangerous automobile.
It is now coming to light that the giant Pharmaceutical Corporations, part of the most profitable industry in the world, routinely suppress data from unfavorable trials of new medicines in order to get FDA approval. Baycol, Phen-Fen and Vioxx are three recent products that the manufacturers had good reason to believe were dangerous yet deliberately failed to warn. Should they be exempted from punitive damages, even it they knowingly marketed a dangerous product, which brought them fabulous profits?
Let's make it closer to home: The driver of an 18-wheeler, high on methamphetamine, barrels through your neighborhood at 80 mph, ignoring stop signs and speed limits. He runs up on the curb and hits your 5-year old daughter who dies instantly and is apprehended 50 miles down the road by law enforcement officers. His employer knows of his addiction but keeps him on the payroll because he delivers his load so quickly. Your daughter dies instantly, so she experiences little pain and suffering. She has no job or earning power and it is almost impossible to estimate the net present value of her future earnings. Her body, flattened by the 18-wheeler, is unrecognizable. A few days later, the insurance adjustor brings you a check for $200,000, which is the cap on non-economic damages. Your daughter, in the eyes of the insurance company, has no economic value. You must accept the $200,000 because the tort reformists have protected the driver, the trucking company and their insurers. The trucking company and driver get off scott free and you, dear bereaved father or mother, stand there holding a check for $200,000. The driver, his employer and the insurance company are laughing their way to the bank.
That is what the tort reformists are trying to bring about.
Predictably, representatives Wicker and Pickering voted for the health care industry and against the people of Mississippi. Taylor, somewhat unaccountably for a Democrat, also voted against the people. Bennie Thompson is the only representative from this state that consistently votes on behalf of the rest of us.
Think about it.
Click here to confirm how your Representative voted:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll449.xml
"Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, the so-called HEALTH Act, which would allow drug companies, HMOs, nursing homes, doctors and hospitals to avoid full accountability when they cause injury or death.
"Although the bill passed, backers of the bill failed to pass the bill by the sizable margin they hoped might jump start the bill in the Senate.
"In fact, despite a year of relentless lobbying by doctors and insurers, as well as drug companies, nursing homes and HMOs, there was virtually no increased support for this legislation.
"A year ago, when the House passed this same bill, 229 Members voted in favor of it. Today, 230 Members voted in favor. This marks the fourth time since September 2002 that the House has passed this legislation."
___________________________________
This is the object of the "tort reform" exponents: make it impossible for badly injured people to receive fair compensation for pain and suffering caused by them, and when their really egregious or deliberate negligence injures the patient, exempt them from punitive damages
Punitive damages disrupt business plans. Injuries and compensatory damage awards that arise from them can be predicted statistically, enabling insurance actuaries to set premiums at a profitable rate to protect their clients. Punitive damages awards, on the other hand, are not predictable and are intended to make an example. When Ford was sued about 20 years ago for making the Pinto with an exposed gas tank prone to rupture and burn when the car was rear-ended, a company memo obtained by the plaintiff's lawyers during discovery revealed that the company was well aware of the danger and made the cold-blooded decision to go ahead and make it with the dangerous design, because the potential savings in cost were considerably more than it could expect to pay out in lawsuits and legal expenses. Of course Ford didn't plan for that memo to see the light of day and when it was put before twelve citizens in a court of law, they awarded the plaintiffs $90 million in punitive damages, their estimate of Ford's cost savings. The verdict, although later reduced on appeal, was a fair one, considering Ford's deliberately manufacturing a dangerous automobile.
It is now coming to light that the giant Pharmaceutical Corporations, part of the most profitable industry in the world, routinely suppress data from unfavorable trials of new medicines in order to get FDA approval. Baycol, Phen-Fen and Vioxx are three recent products that the manufacturers had good reason to believe were dangerous yet deliberately failed to warn. Should they be exempted from punitive damages, even it they knowingly marketed a dangerous product, which brought them fabulous profits?
Let's make it closer to home: The driver of an 18-wheeler, high on methamphetamine, barrels through your neighborhood at 80 mph, ignoring stop signs and speed limits. He runs up on the curb and hits your 5-year old daughter who dies instantly and is apprehended 50 miles down the road by law enforcement officers. His employer knows of his addiction but keeps him on the payroll because he delivers his load so quickly. Your daughter dies instantly, so she experiences little pain and suffering. She has no job or earning power and it is almost impossible to estimate the net present value of her future earnings. Her body, flattened by the 18-wheeler, is unrecognizable. A few days later, the insurance adjustor brings you a check for $200,000, which is the cap on non-economic damages. Your daughter, in the eyes of the insurance company, has no economic value. You must accept the $200,000 because the tort reformists have protected the driver, the trucking company and their insurers. The trucking company and driver get off scott free and you, dear bereaved father or mother, stand there holding a check for $200,000. The driver, his employer and the insurance company are laughing their way to the bank.
That is what the tort reformists are trying to bring about.
Predictably, representatives Wicker and Pickering voted for the health care industry and against the people of Mississippi. Taylor, somewhat unaccountably for a Democrat, also voted against the people. Bennie Thompson is the only representative from this state that consistently votes on behalf of the rest of us.
Think about it.
Click here to confirm how your Representative voted:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll449.xml
Beginning of the blog
Jun 25, 2005 13:03
The JP has been around a long time -- a little over six years, which is an eternity on the Web. The original newspaper style edition will still carry articles, but the action will be here in the blog, which gives me the opportunity to put down some ideas that don't call for extended treatment in an essay.
Since the JP started publishing, the blog revolution has taken over the web and is exerting a powerful influence over the political world. The key to power is exclusive access to critical knowledge, and as the commercial media became more and more concentrated it was beginning to look as though the American public would be permanently cut off from knowledge of what is going on in the world and in our nation, knowledge essential to a citizen of a republic.
In no more than three years, blogs have seriously damaged the ability of the MSM to control the public agenda. While most bloggers, even political bloggers, are not journalists and don't pretend to be, the best have performed an invaluable service in both publicizing news stories that the media tried to keep buried and in subjecting the media to close scrutiny in their reporting and opinion-writing. Writing for a prestigious newspaper is no longer by itself sufficient to command the respect of the public; inaccuracies will be exposed and broadcast. Often the MSM gets its cue from the blogosphere.
The Downing Street Memo is a perfect example of this trend. Almost completely ignored by the U.S. media, liberal and progressive bloggers kept the story alive until the media could no longer ignore it. Grudgingly, the implications of the memo are seeping into the public consciousness, much like what happened after the Watergate break-in. Here are the official recollections of a meeting at the pinnacle of the British government flatly stating that the Bush administration was cooking the intelligence books in order to convince Americans that Saddam Hussein posed a clear and imminent danger to the U.S. The administration was misleading the public and the British government would do its best to mislead the British public.
Lying to the nation to justify a preemptive war against a virtually defenseless people is a high crime. Period. It is an impeachable act and it says much about both our Republican and Democratic politicians in Washington--little of it complimentary -- that impeachment proceedings have not already begun. If Bush and his cohorts are ever called to account before a tribunal, whether legislative or judicial, the liberal bloggers that refused to be intimidated and kept the story alive when the powers that be did all they could to make it go away deserve a great part of the credit. The best of the blogger breed will receive their due on the sidebar as soon as I have the time to put them there.
Until there is traffic to justify it, this blog will remain technically simple, with comments managed through Haloscan, which seems to be free of blog spam. If you want to make a post, as opposed to a comment on a post, email it to me at editor *at* jacksonprogressive.com and with **post** anywhere in the subject line. (The word "post" with two asterisks on each side allows the mail program to separate posts automatically from the rest of the mail.)
I would encourage posts dealing with Jackson metro area and Mississippi politics. There is much going on locally and statewide that affects us, and intelligent exchange is woefully rare in Mississippi. A notable exception is the Jackson Free Press, which publishes a free weekly newspaper in the Jackson area and carries blogs on their website. The JFP carries an extensive listing of local events, as well, so it's well worth reading.
We will publish any thoughtful posts submitted, as long as they are not so off-topic as to be irrelevant. Let me know what's on your mind, either in an email or as a comment.
Tom Lowe, editor
Since the JP started publishing, the blog revolution has taken over the web and is exerting a powerful influence over the political world. The key to power is exclusive access to critical knowledge, and as the commercial media became more and more concentrated it was beginning to look as though the American public would be permanently cut off from knowledge of what is going on in the world and in our nation, knowledge essential to a citizen of a republic.
In no more than three years, blogs have seriously damaged the ability of the MSM to control the public agenda. While most bloggers, even political bloggers, are not journalists and don't pretend to be, the best have performed an invaluable service in both publicizing news stories that the media tried to keep buried and in subjecting the media to close scrutiny in their reporting and opinion-writing. Writing for a prestigious newspaper is no longer by itself sufficient to command the respect of the public; inaccuracies will be exposed and broadcast. Often the MSM gets its cue from the blogosphere.
The Downing Street Memo is a perfect example of this trend. Almost completely ignored by the U.S. media, liberal and progressive bloggers kept the story alive until the media could no longer ignore it. Grudgingly, the implications of the memo are seeping into the public consciousness, much like what happened after the Watergate break-in. Here are the official recollections of a meeting at the pinnacle of the British government flatly stating that the Bush administration was cooking the intelligence books in order to convince Americans that Saddam Hussein posed a clear and imminent danger to the U.S. The administration was misleading the public and the British government would do its best to mislead the British public.
Lying to the nation to justify a preemptive war against a virtually defenseless people is a high crime. Period. It is an impeachable act and it says much about both our Republican and Democratic politicians in Washington--little of it complimentary -- that impeachment proceedings have not already begun. If Bush and his cohorts are ever called to account before a tribunal, whether legislative or judicial, the liberal bloggers that refused to be intimidated and kept the story alive when the powers that be did all they could to make it go away deserve a great part of the credit. The best of the blogger breed will receive their due on the sidebar as soon as I have the time to put them there.
Until there is traffic to justify it, this blog will remain technically simple, with comments managed through Haloscan, which seems to be free of blog spam. If you want to make a post, as opposed to a comment on a post, email it to me at editor *at* jacksonprogressive.com and with **post** anywhere in the subject line. (The word "post" with two asterisks on each side allows the mail program to separate posts automatically from the rest of the mail.)
I would encourage posts dealing with Jackson metro area and Mississippi politics. There is much going on locally and statewide that affects us, and intelligent exchange is woefully rare in Mississippi. A notable exception is the Jackson Free Press, which publishes a free weekly newspaper in the Jackson area and carries blogs on their website. The JFP carries an extensive listing of local events, as well, so it's well worth reading.
We will publish any thoughtful posts submitted, as long as they are not so off-topic as to be irrelevant. Let me know what's on your mind, either in an email or as a comment.
Tom Lowe, editor