Some Beliefs Die Hard

Is there any doubt that racism is still alive and well in the state of Mississippi?

From an article written by Ward Schaefer in the Jackson Free Press:

State Sen. Lydia Chassaniol’s decision to speak at the annual conference of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens last week drew disapproval from her constituents, as well as a defense from her state party chairman. As reported first by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog, Chassaniol, R-Winona, spoke to the racist, anti-Semitic group about “Cultural Heritage in Mississippi.”

“I wouldn’t associate myself with any hate group,” Lewis said. “For someone to do that sends a message to me that they somewhat or totally agree with their agenda.”

For Chassaniol, that would mean agreeing with the CofCC’s opposition to interracial marriage and “race-mixing” and the claim that black people are “genetically inferior.” Columnists in the CofCC’s newsletter have hyperventilated that non-white immigration to the U.S. was transforming the country into a “slimy brown mass of glop.”

The senator added in the e-mail that she has spoken at the all-black Greenwood Voter’s League, which some could consider racist for lacking white members: “I do not abide by labels such as this, and I hope you will forgive me for taking exception to the insinuation that I am racist, because I choose to belong to a conservative organization. Conservative is a term which also applies to fiscal matters.”

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White admitted that he would not have attended. “I wouldn’t have went,” White said. “Seeing the turmoil that it’s caused and some of the bad light that it’s put on her—I think unjustly and unfortunately—I wish that circumstances would have been different.”

Her attitude is a good indication of why Mississippians voted overwhelmingly for McCain in the last election.  Race will be denied as the reason but voters in the state would have voted for Attila the Hun over Obama.

I am not saying that all voters in Mississippi are racists but the older more likely to vote regularly…are.

Hurricane Season Good News

It is being reported in Bloomberg:

El Nino conditions are forming in the Pacific Ocean, which may limit the number of hurricanes that form in the Atlantic this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported today.El Nino is a warming of the eastern Pacific that occurs every two to five years, on average, and lasts about 12 months, the agency said in a statement. Sea surface temperatures in the area were about 1 degree Celsius above average in June, according to the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Maryland.

While the phenomenon can mean more wintry storms in California, “on the positive side, El Nino can help suppress Atlantic hurricane activity,” said the NOAA statement. “In the U.S., it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to the arid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North and a reduced risk of Florida wildfires.”

We residents of the Guld Coast will take all the good news we can get during hurricane season.  We have suffered enough from these storms.

Happy….Happy…Joy…Joy

Do Not Look To Alabama For Help

The AP is reporting on the next hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast:

Alabama has a message for its neighbors: Don’t count on us next time you need shelter from a storm. And it’s not because Louisiana evacuees made a mess last time they came.Gov. Bob Riley said Tuesday that Alabama will take fewer out-of-state evacuees into shelters this year, so that shelter space will remain available for Alabama residents. He said the state will be especially cautious about filling shelters if there’s a chance another hurricane could affect the Alabama coast.

More than 6,500 evacuees, mostly from Louisiana, filled 28 shelters at community colleges across Alabama over Labor Day weekend last year as Hurricane Gustav neared the Louisiana coast. Most came in buses, many from the New Orleans area.

Riley said the decision to limit the number of out-of-state evacuees in shelters was not related to complaints by some community college officials that school buildings used for shelters were left in disrepair after the evacuees returned home.

I was wondering how long it would take states to get around to this……after all the bad press that evacuees got after Katrina it was only a matter of time.

Time To Make The Coast Presentable

Recently I read an article in my local paper about the “program” to Clean-up the Coast ahead of the National Governors Conference to be held on the Coast in the coming weeks.

It is all about appearance….we would not want the nation’s govs to get the wrong impression of Mississippi….and besides this will cost no or little cash…and that is what the governor and the politicians want.

If they think they will embarrass Bubba into playing ball and not littering…they are on CRACK!  Bubba cares less about what the Coast looks like as long as he can drink beer, riding around wasting gas in his boat and going to Hooters.

What these moronbic politicians should be worried about is the condition of the people in the state.,..that is a never ending embarrassment….low education…high amount of poor…high teen preggies…..crappy health care…these thing is what should be worked on and not how many years Toyota gets a free ride on taxes.

Mississippians are slobs and they will seldom change…but good luck with trying to bullshit the other governors.

Gulfport On The Sly

Gulfport city leaders, after a closed-door meeting, announce plans to annex 2.5 square miles north of the city. The plan is expected to draw fire from neighboring Biloxi and Harrison County and from residents in previously annexed areas who believe the city hasn’t provided adequate services there even years after annexation.

Can you feel the wool being pulled over your eyes?  Take a trip through North Gulfport sometime……check out the streets and such….after 20 years they still have not done right by the poor in the city.

Gulfport should not have been allowed to annex north up Hwy 49, they have dragged their feet on the promise improvements to the poorer neighborhoods.

A lawyer and expert on Mississippi’s open-government laws said Gulfport violated the law with its closed-door session on annexation and other matters. Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr, a lame duck who will leave office in weeks, responds that neither he nor the council did anything wrong with the secret meeting.

And his primary residence was an empty house during Katrina…….NOTHING Wrong?….yeah…right!

Here Is An Idea

From a report by the AP:

A county sheriff in northern Ohio who banned pancakes from the jail menu to cut costs has found another way to save: He’s having the inmates grow their own food.Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer got the idea for a vegetable garden at the jail in Fremont after he was forced to reduce his budget by $75,000 this spring.

Low-risk inmates who are allowed to mow lawns and do other chores around the county planted about an acre and a half of fruits and vegetables on jail grounds three weeks ago.

One inmate says everyone will enjoy the fresh food because budget cuts have made meals less appetizing.

Another great idea, but I believe this was tried in Harrison County about 20 years ago and had to be abandoned because of some visions of the old “chain gangs”.

A good idea and a money saving idea, but will there be ways that it can be abused?

A Wind Pool Death

Mississippi’s Rep. Gene Taylor has had his pet project pulling from his hands by the Obama admin.

His pet project is a new Federal Wind Insurance.

Napolitano’s letter to key House leaders stated the Obama administration position on the issue: Wind insurance is too costly and unnecessary to add to the federal flood insurance program. FEMA chief Craig Fugate also wrote senators in response to questions at his confirmation hearing that he, too, was opposed to the wind plan, which the Senate rejected last year.

Mississippi’s Gov. Barbour said he is looking at “multi-state solutions” with states combining wind pools, and hopes to make more progress by the National Governors Association meeting in Biloxi in July.

Now this is where I start to worry…..these people, state government, who cannot do naything but give business everything, will not run an insurance program any more efficiently.  When the money is not there, they will start taxing the working class to pay for any programs they want.

Look at Mississippi’s Medicaid program…..all the cash from lawsuits and special cig taxes has not made it anymore stable…I would trust a Federal program way more than anything that a state politician would have.

Way Cool Science!

I live in the South and one of our biggest probs is that of fire ants…the f*ckers are everywhere.  Most ant poison just makes them move a few feet away and kills very few.  There has got to be a way to control the little bastards.

But wait!  There is good news on the horizon!

It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it’s all too real.

Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound.

Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.

The tool is the tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants in Texas originated. Researchers have learned that there are as many as 23 phorid species along with pathogens that attack fire ants to keep their population and movements under control.

The flies “dive-bomb” the fire ants and lay eggs. The maggot that hatches inside the ant eats away at the brain, and the ant starts exhibiting what some might say is zombie-like behavior.

The maggot eventually migrates into the ant’s head, but Plowes said he “wouldn’t use the word ‘control’ to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks.”

About a month after the egg is laid, the ant’s head falls off and the fly emerges ready to attack any foraging ants away from the mound and lay eggs.

The flies, which are USDA -approved, do not attack native ants or species and have been introduced in other Gulf Coast states, Plowes said. Despite initial concerns, farmers and ranchers have been willing to let researchers use their property to establish colonies. At the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in Fort Worth in March, Plowes said they found plenty of volunteers.

I say bring it on!  If anyone has ever been biten by these ants knows that it is very uncomfortable and something has to be done.  They destroy a lot of wildlife and cause a lot of damage.  Kill the f*ckers!

Time To Rethink Property Taxes

Mississippi is struggling with the reality that there is not enough cash to pay for the programs they have, much less any new programs.  The tax structure has been the problem….give aways to business and increases on others have made the whole system a joke at best.  It is time to rethink taxes, especially property taxes.

May I see a show of hands on the people that pay NO property tax thanks to Homestead Exemption?

I hate to be the one that pops a bubble here….but…you do realize that property taxes pays for such services as schools and funds many local programs, right?  Times are tough and getting tougher every year and every year the local politicians find ways to tax everybody.  Eventually reality will set in.

For too long Mississippi has given away revenue with the hope of attracting business and then asks the working majority to foot the bill.  There is a better way…and it would be a win-win scenario.

By making the Land Value Tax the rule, then the Coast and all of Mississippi could have the needed funds to use where it is needed, whether it is education or Medicaid or wherever.

Land rent means taxing land. Not buildings, not work, not commerce, just bare land. Or if land has buildings (as most land has) then the equivalent value of the land if it had no buildings.

Land gets its value its improvements (buildings etc) and from its location. The improvements were made by the hard work of the owners. But the location has value because of what society does, because of roads and schools and good neighbors.

If society taxes buildings and improvements, it steals people’s hard work, their time and energy, their life. Most taxation is therefore theft. But if society taxes the location, then it simply claims back the value it creates. Land rent distinguishes between the individual’s property and society’s property.

If you tax work, the amount of work goes down, because some work becomes less profitable. But if you tax land, the amount of land remains the same. So if you want to encourage work, you should tax land, not work.

Land rent is the only guarantee of fair property rights. If people can charge rent but they pay no rent themselves, eventually one person or one elite will own everything and nobody else can have any property unless it suits the elite. To see why, play the game Monopoly. Monopoly is based on “The Landlord’s Game,” invented by Lizzie Magie as a way to show why we need land rent.

Land rent is the most efficient way of creating wealth because it gives resources to those who can use them best (that is, those who can generate the most wealth from the land).

Land rent creates economic justice, by ensuring that everyone keeps the wealth they create, and any extra is given back to society. So nobody has unfair privileges, and everyone has an equal chance to succeed.

Land rent provides a fair system for all, because it generates wealth for society, yet it is so simple that corruption and inefficiency have nowhere to hide.  This is a definite plus, for today, those are the major problems with the taxation of land.

Even the Mississippi Economic Policy Center has called for the state to revamp its taxation system, then why not take the opportunity to truly revamp the tax policy?  Mississippi is always in need of funds, but its ruling few refuse to find a more equitable system.  The economic situation that Mississippi and the country finds themselves is a perfect time to find a more efficient tax system.

Buy And Shop Locally

We have all seen the ads on the tube where local business leaders stand around and tell you that it is your duty to help the local economy during this time of crisis by shopping and buying locally.

But where is the incentive for the consumer to do so?  They will go where they save a buck, not because some overpaid spokesperson is saying to to so.

Recently I read an article about the use of BerkShares, a currency printed by some local people in the Massachusetts area.

BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region. Dubbed a “great economic experiment” by the New York Times, BerkShares are a tool for community empowerment, enabling merchants and consumers to plant the seeds for an alternative economic future for their communities. Launched in the fall of 2006, BerkShares had a robust initiation, with over one million BerkShares having been circulated in the first nine months and over two million to date. Currently, more than three hundred and fifty businesses have signed up to accept the currency. Five different banks have partnered with BerkShares, with a total of twelve branch offices now serving as exchange stations. For BerkShares, this is only the beginning. Future plans could involve BerkShare checking accounts, electronic transfer of funds, ATM machines, and even a loan program to facilitate the creation of new, local businesses manufacturing more of the goods that are used locally.
Click here for more information about BerkShares.

This is a better idea that needs exploring  if these people are serious about shoppinmg and spending locally.  This concept fulfills all the criteria of shopping locally and helping the establishments.

The problem is that Mississippi is never serious about the local thing….local business do not pay the political bills and buy few friends, real friends.  Coastians need to give with their local reps and force these people to do something for the Coast and its  people and businesses.

I am afraid that my writing is falling on blind eyes….but that is not unusual.