More from Mississippi

Since I have put GSFP on the back burner (for now) any posts about Mississippi will be on Info Ink at lobotero.wordpress.com…….please all you Mississippians looking for news and analysis about the state…please go to Info Ink

New Ideas Of State Reps

I got this email recently from the Progressive States Network and thought I would pass it along to the readers….some of the ideas are pretty good and innovative and some are just dumb….

Job Creation Opportunities During a Recession

Kauffman Foundation – The Economic Future Just Happened
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation – 2008 State New Economy Index
Kauffman Foundation – Better, Faster, Cheaper: The New Bootstrap Job Creator”

State Venture Capital Funds

National Governors Association – State Strategies to Promote Angel Investment for Economic Growth
NASVF – U.S. State-Supported Venture Capital Funds

Encourage Technology Transfer and Commercialization

Pennsylvania Economy League – A Continuing Record of Achievement: The Economic Impact of Ben Franklin Technology Partners 2002-2006
U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration – Construction Grants Program Impact Assessment Report
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation – 2008 State New Economy Index
Batelle and the Association of University Research Parks – Characteristics and Trends in North American Research Parks

Strengthen Industry Partnerships & Clusters

Keystone Research Center – Pennsylvania’s Industry Partnership Strategy
Steel Valley Authority (SVA) – Early Warning and Layoff Aversio
Seattle Foundation and SkillUp Washington -  Creating Stronger Workforce Partnerships In Manufacturing
National Fund for Workforce Solutions – The Principles of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and Their Implications for Public Policy
National Governors Association – Cluster-Based Strategies for Growing State Economies

State government needs all the help it can get….but unfortunately politics is NOT always the best for the state…just the individuals that play the game……

Fight Against Dirty Coal Plant

I got this email from the Sierra Club and wanted to pass it along….Mississippi is already the most littered state…so let us try and keep it a bit cleaner…if possible…..

Do you think $2.8 billion for a dirty coal plant is a good investment for Mississippi? Mississippi Power is proposing an enormous, dirty coal plant in Kemper County and will pass on the construction cost to their customers, causing monthly bills to increase by 200%!

Take action now to oppose Mississippi Power’s $2.8 billion dollar coal plant in Kemper County.

Mississippi’s Public Service Commission (PSC) is accepting public comments through the public hearing on February 5th.  We need your input as they consider granting the certificate of need for this multi-billion dollar, dirty, unnecessary coal plant.

There are cleaner, healthier solutions to Mississippi. There is over 7,000 MW of power in cleaner burning natural gas plants that are sitting idle while MS Power claims there are no other sources of energy.  Energy efficiency and conservation should be the “first fuel” that should be utilized and considered before saddling electric customers with billions of dollars of debt for decades to come.

Please submit a public comment now and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Take Action here: http://action.sierraclub.org/Stop_Kemper

If you love your state and want to keep it as pristine as possible….GET INVOLVED!

SB 2288–Speculator’s Dream

There are times when the state legislature does something that is a blatant disregard of the people it represents and SB2288 is such bill….which states:

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF A COUNTY AND/OR THE GOVERNING AUTHORITIES OF A MUNICIPALITY TO GRANT A PARTIAL AD VALOREM TAX EXEMPTION FOR AGRICULTURAL PROPERTY THAT IS BEING CONVERTED TO A RESIDENTIAL USE IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE DIFFERENCE IN THE ASSESSED VALUE OF THE PROPERTY FOR AGRICULTURAL USE AND THE ASSESSED VALUE OF THE PROPERTY FOR RESIDENTIAL USE; TO PROVIDE THAT THE EXEMPTION SHALL END WHEN THE PROPERTY IS OCCUPIED BY A HOMEOWNER; TO PROVIDE THE MANNER IN WHICH A REQUEST FOR SUCH EXEMPTION MUST BE MADE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

This appears to be a boon for the purpose of land speculation….

A case could be made that land speculation is the cause of almost every major recession/depression that has occurred whether nationwide or statewide…..The 19th century economist Henry George describes it:

That land speculation is the true cause of industrial depression is, in the United States, clearly evident. In each period of industrial activity land values have steadily risen, culminating in speculation which carried them up in great jumps. This has been invariably followed by a partial cessation of production, and its correlative, a cessation of effective demand (dull trade), generally accompanied by a commercial crash; and then has succeeded a period of comparative stagnation, during which the equilibrium has been again slowly established, and the same round been run again. This relation is observable throughout the civilized world. Periods of industrial activity always culminate in a speculative advance of land values, followed by symptoms of checked production, generally shown at first by cessation of demand from the newer countries, where the advance in land values has been greatest.

This bill is just another attempt to help the land speculators while depriving the state of much needed tax revenue…in these days any reduction in revenue can only lead to a cut in needed services….

Once again, the state legislation is dealing the people of the state a bad hand, just as they do every session…the people need to stop sleeping through the day and wake up politically…they are paying these people to do nothing but screw them at every session….

Could Religion Explain It All?

No I am not talking about the meaning of life….Or existence of God…..or how old the earth is…..or any of that mind numbing stuff….what I am talking about is the relation of religion to other issues in the South….

A new Gallup Poll shows that Mississippi is the most religious state in the Union…….

A new Gallup Poll, based on more than 350,000 interviews, finds that the Magnolia State is the one where the most people — 85% — say yes when asked “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”

Joining Mississippi in the top “most religious” states are other notches in the Bible Belt: Alabama (82%), South Carolina (80%), Tennessee (79%), Louisiana (78%), and Arkansas (78%).

The top ten are as follows:

Mississippi: 85%
Alabama: 82%
South Carolina: 80%
Tennessee: 79%
Louisiana: 78%
Arkansas: 78%
Georgia: 76%
North Carolina: 76%
Oklahoma: 75%
Kentucky: 74%

With all that said I decided to do a little research into other issues and situations that may have a correlation in this story.

For instance the ten most religious states, 9 are in the South…….in the same list all 10 of the states are some of the poorest in the nation….the ten states in the religious list…all of which are on the bottom of the “smartest” state list….and now for the biggie, at least for me….the 10 most religious states are the dumbest and the poorest and in the same vain the most Republican….that is right…these 10 states voted overwhelmingly for John McCain in the last presidential election…..

Makes me think of a quote from John Stuart Mill, “I am not saying conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative”…….

First let me say that in my opinion these stats are contradictory and fly in the face of logic…….

What conclusion can one draw from these stats?

I can understand the correlation between poverty and religion….when you have nothing religion is a comfortable place to hide….and I can understand the lack of education would make religion attractive as an answer to your problems….this is where I have a hard time understanding……I cannot understand why a state that is so poor would be so republican….my only thought on that is that the state GOP plays the religion card more readily than the Dems and the lack of education would make it easy to fool the people into believing anything they wish to paint for them……..

The conclusion that I can draw is that the lack of education and poverty make religion a comfortable place for the people to hide…because of this comfort politicians can use these things as a way to mold the people of the state into citizen that the politicians want……

Better Education Means Better Jobs

Recently at an economic forum some interesting points were made:

The governor also talked about the state’s graduation rates and the need for more work-force training. High school graduation rates, Barbour said, might improve if students were directed to career paths early in high school.More education, generally, translates into people with better paying jobs with more disposable income that would translate into increased tax collections.

You would think that if that was the attitude that the governor and the legislature would be gung-ho on educational bills, right?

Communities Of Color

I will bet that you are about to read me the riot act over the title, right?

I am referring to a bill before the state legislature, HB 148—which states:

AN ACT TO CREATE THE “MISSISSIPPI COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITIES OF COLOR TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION ACT OF 2010″; TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH TO DEVELOP CERTAIN PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES PROMOTING PREGNANCY PREVENTION AND PROVIDING INFORMATION ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF UNPROTECTED, UNINFORMED AND UNDERAGE SEXUAL ACTIVITY; TO AMEND SECTION 41-79-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

Don’t you just love these guys and gals?

It seems that the state is worried about teen pregnancies in the “Communities of Color”….not this is a total racist thing…they seem to be implying that only teens of color are getting pregnant….why do we not go visit a trailer park and count for ourselves…..

You know a lot of this BS could be solved by actually teaching sex ed in the classroom….but that collapses every session and every session they try it again…it has turned into this perverted little game…..

But to put the term, “communities of color” is just plain and outright moronic….if this is truly non-racial then I suggest a better title for this Act…..