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.

Taxation Proposal

In a local Coast community, Ocean Springs, MS has come up with a novel idea to get people to expand or innovate their businesses.

The proposed tax abatement will allow businesses to deduct up to 80 percent of their city property tax for a period of 10 years on any expansions or renovations.

It does not apply to businesses such as apartment complexes and condominiums.

Mayor Connie Moran said some business owners in Ocean Springs are unsure about expanding or renovating their businesses because of the higher tax bill they’ll receive.

By receiving a break on their city taxes, they can proceed with their improvement projects.

Another give away to business—where will the city make up for the revenue loss for this move?

Instead of looking for ways to increase the revenue and thusly able to fund city preojects without going in the hole, these people want to give away the revenue and worry about it later.  It is all just a stupid political game.

This could be avoided by one very simple move–Land Value Taxation–it is not a difficult thing to do…it will take will and ability…two things that most of the mayors on the Coast do not have.  They are elected by personality and likability, not capability

If more is needed about LVT then please click on my page here entitled, Land Value Taxation, and an explanation of the proposal will be there to check it out.

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.

Bad News For New Orleans

Bigger, higher and stronger levees cannot save New Orleans from the worst floods and the city remains vulnerable to a repeat of Hurricane Katrina, the National Academy of Sciences said on Friday.

New Orleans had the flood protection of a 350-mile (563 km) network of levees, I-walls and T-walls ringing the city when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on Aug. 29, 2005. The levees broke, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The hurricane killed about 1,500 people along the U.S. Gulf Coast and caused $80 billion in damages, making it the costliest U.S. natural disaster.

As Katrina demonstrated, “the risks of inundation and flooding never can be fully eliminated by protective structures no matter how large or sturdy those structures may be,” said the report by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council.

“Substantial risks” of living in flood-prone areas were never clearly communicated to residents before Katrina, it said, and simply rebuilding New Orleans and its hurricane-protection system back to pre-Katrina levels would leave the city vulnerable to another flooding disaster.

Large portions of New Orleans are below sea level, which makes it vulnerable to floods and storm surges from hurricanes. Located at the mouth of the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans is in close proximity to Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne.

The city’s levee system was tested again in September 2008, when a surge from Hurricane Gustav nearly overtopped a protective T-wall along New Orleans’ Inner Navigation Canal.

Let us pray that Katrina was a once in a lifetime occurance, if the Gulf Coast gets hit again anytime soon, then it will become a third world country.  It will lose the developement appeal.  Why build in an area that can be destroyed in less than a day?

You think times are tough now……another hurricane will show just how bad things can get.

Let us paray!

All So Much White Noise

Recently the Coast, as well as the whole US, was in the throws of a “tax protest” known as the New Tea Party.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast was NO acception.  The crowd, which organizers estimated to be about 1,000, showed up for the local “Taxed Enough Already” party, which was in conjunction with hundreds of other rallies held around the country Wednesday.

Supporters of the movement say the event was in the same spirit of the Boston Tea Party in December 1773, when colonists protested the Tea Act passed by the British government with no input from the colonies by the British government with no input from the colonies by dumping tea from the ships into Boston Harbor.

One of the organizers of Gulfport’s rally, Charles Purchner, of Long Beach, said he disagreed with the position that many liberals are taking, that the TEA parties are actually being driven by rich Republicans.

You looked out over the crowd and it was all so white and McCain supporters……it was a protest that they lost in the last election.  I call it “White Noise” because that is what it is white middle age people using something like taxes to show their disapproval of a new president.

Check the facts for yourself….I do not mean by listening to absolute morons like Rush, Armey or Newt……your taxes will NOT go up…so what else you got?

Many people were surprised that there were still this many racists left out there.  But those people are not in the South, where racism is a way of life.

Ron White has it right when he says, “you cannot fix stupid”.

Keep The Cash Where It Is

Recently there has been a massive program for the local citiies and the Coast as a whole to keep all cash in the community.  You have heard all the rhetoric, think and buy locally.  A very good idea, but it should apply to absolutely everyone from Chevron and Ingalls to Mr. Smith down the street.

It always seems to be the people’s responsibility to help the money stay……but yet the big industries buy and shop wherever it is cheapest.  the can propose initiative after initiative but until they find a wayto keep the “big bucks” in town…these are nothing more than a game played by politicians.

I agree that we all should support businesses and such……since the state legislature is so good at throw tax cuts at industries and such why not give a tax break to ANYONE personal or institutional, that buys locally?  I doubt if you will ever hear this from any of your butt licking politicians, it is much easier to put the burden on the backs of the people and if it fails they, the politicians can remain blameless, at least they had an idea, even if it was pretty lame.

Where Are Our Leaders?

Homeowners from developments ranging from Boynton Beach to Parkland gathered at West Palm Beach City Hall Wednesday to meet with Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., over Chinese drywall concerns.

Nelson opened the meeting with a call for the resignation of the acting chief of the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission. ”We need to put a fire under the responsible agencies,” said Nelson, who Tuesday penned a letter to the White House saying that the CPSC “is doing too little, too late to help residents of Florida and other states.”

However, homeowners attending the event were much more interested in discussing the possible health effects of living in a home with the tainted product: The plasterboard emits sulfuric gas thought to corrode metal, including air conditioning coils, bathroom fixtures and jewelry.

Now where are the leaders of Mississippi?  How much of the Chinese drywall was used in South Mississippi in the Katrina repairs?  Why have not our cracker jack Washingt5on big shots cared enough to meet with us to answer our concerns?  One of the senators spent time playing the flesh pressing game…stopping at a small resturant and a business on the Coast, but so far he has not shown much leadership other than making an ass of himself in Washington.

If you have concerns about the drywall then I suggest that you by-pass AL:L the state’s worthless reps and go direct to Rep. Wexler of Florida, at least he will knows how to talk to the people.

Some Good Hurricane News

Expect 12 named storms, six of those hurricanes — two with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater, the nation’s best-known seasonal hurricane forecasters said Tuesday.

A weak El Nino should make for an “average” hurricane season, William Gray’s team from Colorado State University predicts.

“If El Nino conditions develop for this year’s hurricane season, it would tend to increase levels of vertical wind shear and decrease levels of Atlantic hurricane activity,” Gray said in a press release.

El Nino — a pulse of warmer-than-usual water near the equatorial Pacific Ocean — tends to create winds that shear tropical systems apart before they can become hurricanes. La Nina, the opposite cycle of cooler water in the equatorial Pacific, tends to allow more hurricanes to form.

“Based on our latest forecast, the probability of a major hurricane making landfall along the U.S. coastline is 54 percent compared with the last-century average of 52 percent,” Phil Klotzbach, lead forecaster of Gray’s team, said in the release. “We are calling for an average hurricane season this year – about as active as the average of the 1950-2000 seasons.”

The team will issue forecast updates on June 2, August 4, September 2 and October 1.

The hurrican season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and this is good news for those of us the live in “hurricane alley”.  Any time that we have an “average” season it is good news.  And anytime that El Nino is cooler than normal it is good news, let us hope that the updates stay prety musch the same.

Katrina Is Still Harming Coastians

Almost four years after Hurricane Katrina kicked the crap outta the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and the residents are still suffering from its effects.  First it was the extreme damage of property loss and lives lost.  Then it was the unscrupulous contractors.  On to FEMA trailers that were tainted.  A/holes that were defrauding the government even to include some government officials. And now, there is the possibility that an esstential of the rebuilding, drywall, may be dangerous.

The drywall in question has come to us from the country of lead paint, bad dog food and such, China.  A company named,  Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., Ltd.

Some of the indications of bad or tainted drywall, the people the have used it have complained of respiratory problems, electronic devices inexplicably breaking down and a strong odors in their homes that smell like rotting eggs, which is due to the release of sulfur;  the sulfur smell is usually present, along with black deposits in bare copper wires, black deposits on the HVAC copper, changes to finishes on mirrors, pitting of chrome and other objects, as well as light switches that pop or have visible discharges.

Sadly, Katrina has continued to effect the lives of the Gulf Coast for years after the event and seems will continue that tact for many years to come.

Sou. MS Is Growing

That is the head line in the South Mississippi Sun-Herald.  According to the report:

Mississippi registered only slight gains in the latest population estimates being released today by federal officials, but the six Coast counties all showed positive growth, with Stone County leading the way.

Numbers from the population division of the U.S. Census Bureau, comparing population from July 2007 to July 2008, show that Stone County grew by 3.1 percent, to a population of 16,025. George County gained 2.1 percent more residents in the same period, for a total population of 22,406.

If someone wants to build a house, the land value tax is very high near the developed urban areas while very low in the rural areas.  It’s less expensive to develop in the undeveloped areas so people will natural spread out.  Now that can explain the raise in the other county’s without putting everyone to sleep with economic theories.

Yes Stone County is growing….but it is not so much that the ads are helping people relocate, but rather those people are trying to avoid urban sprawl occuring on the Coast.  It is more that cost of living is less.  Cheaper rent and land are a prime motivation for the move.  It is just a development known as “leap frog development”.

It is simply economics that is driving the move….in the economic climate that the country is going through would explain it more than some think tank trying to take credit for the county’s growth.