County defends its $7,000-per-acre tab to cut unsightly lots

The man in charge of the county’s public works department says the high rates for laying weeds low are justified.

“Yeah, that’s a lot of money to charge for mowing your lawn. But if you’re going to be a scofflaw and ignore public notices, you ought not expect to get bargains on whatever the process is,” County Administrator Terry Funderburk said.

The article goes on to say that these people are asked to do something about their lots, and given 10 days.  Surely there is something you can do in 10 days.  If there are other companies charging only $125 per acre, call them up and get it taken care of. 

“One sheriff approached my car with his hand on his gun,” she said. “Another from the other side of the car leaned in and said, ‘Are you Deborah Combs?’ He said, ‘We have a warrant for your arrest.’ I was absolutely shocked.”

Ok, I understand the principle here.  My dad taught me and my sister and brother that stealing was stealing, and he didn’t care if we took a nickel off his desk or a twenty dollar bill from our mother’s purse, but the level of force in which they went after this woman is a bit excessive in my opinion.

I got an 88. 

The Graft Goes On

Here’s a good idea: Consumer groups and progressive congressfolks have joined in an effort to stop hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina from being further harmed by the new Bankruptcy Act, scheduled to take effect Oct. 17. This law was notoriously written of, by and for the consumer credit industry, and is particularly onerous for the poor.

The bill was passed with massive support from the Republican leadership in Congress and from a disgusting number of sellout Democrats. While it was being considered in committee earlier this year, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee offered an amendment to protect victims of natural disasters. It was defeated, without debate, on a party-line vote.

Now, Congress has a chance to rethink some of the most punitive parts of the bill. Katrina victims who were planning to file before the new law goes into effect are s.o.l. — where are they gonna find a lawyer, let alone an open courthouse?

Under the new law, anyone whose income is over the state median must file under Chapter 13, a more restrictive category that requires some repayment of debt. The new law grants no exemption for natural disaster, even though it’s going to be a little tough for some citizen sitting in the Astrodome who no longer has a home to come up with tax statements, pay stubs, and six months of income and expense data. Let’s see if Congress can manage to open its marble heart on this issue.

And equally as important…

Meanwhile, it’s an ill wind that blows no one good, so we should not be surprised to learn the first winner out of the gate on Katrina is none other than the Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has already been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of Katrina.

Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed — $194,852 last year.

But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts — that, friends, goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of — of all things — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who was Bush’s campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give generously to the Republican Party.

Now, aren’t you ashamed of yourself for thinking there’s something wrong with that? Besides, Allbaugh is now with a big-time Washington lobbying firm, where he also represents Shaw Group Inc., and — viola — Shaw Group, too, already has a $100 million emergency contract from FEMA for housing management and construction, and a $100 million order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Katrina repair.

That is the bulk of the article. I am really almost speechless that Halliburton has their hands in all of this. Shouldn’t these contracts go to local companies who will do the job for less? Perhaps Construction Company X from Baton Rouge or someplace local? A company that actually has a stake in rebuilding the community?  They keep talking about how much this is going to cost.  I am willing to bed that if local companies and small businesses were given the same contracts, the cost would be significantly less.  Ya know, it must be nice to have a job, especially one in our government, where you can make sure all your friends come first and are always well taken care of.

Glenn Beck called hurricane survivors in New Orleans “scumbags” said he “hates” 9-11 families

I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims. These guys – you know it’s really sad. We’re not hearing anything about Mississippi. We’re not hearing anything about Alabama. We’re hearing about the victims in New Orleans. This is a 90,000-square-mile disaster site, New Orleans is 181 square miles. A hundred and — 0.2 percent of the disaster area is New Orleans! And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags – and again, it’s not all the people in New Orleans. Most of the people in New Orleans got out! It’s just a small percentage of those who were left in New Orleans, or who decided to stay in New Orleans, and they’re getting all the attention. It’s exactly like the 9-11 victims’ families.

He came to this conclusion after seeing many of them rush the line in the Astrodome for the $2,000 debit cards that FEMA was handing out. These people have absolutely nothing, some donated clothing, and yes they now have food and water, but of course they wanted the 2 grand. Most of these people lost their homes. This money is one step closer to getting the hell out of the Astrodome and perhaps to someplace where they and their family can begin to get a grasp on life again. To fault them for wanting this 2 grand so badly is just wrong.

In the beginning there was the Flying Spaghetti Monster

For a growing band of devoted followers, He is the Supreme Being; creator of the universe and all living things. To the rest of us, the Flying Spaghetti Monster looks like a giant heap of pasta and meatballs topped with eyeballs on stalks. As it turns out, both interpretations are correct.

In the past few weeks, the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has become perhaps the world’s fastest-growing “religion” and maybe its most improbable. While no one can be sure of the exact numbers of “Pastafarians”, as acolytes are called, they may number in the millions.

I guess this is as foreign to some as the “accepted” religious figures are to others.

Bush Supporters Question Iraq War Tactics 

When President Bush meets with his Iraqi counterpart at the White House on Tuesday, the administration and its supporters are sure to extol the virtues and the wisdom of the American role in rebuilding Iraq.

But there’s sure to be some head shaking and criticism as well, and this time from some unexpected corners.

Staunch supporters of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq have become more vocal and public with their concern over the way things are going there, prompting observers to suggest that even Republicans are getting nervous.

It’s about time people started to have questions, instead of being force fed by the administration and the media.

NBC’s Williams: Journalist’s Gloves Off

There were so many angry, even incredulous, questions put to Bush administration officials about the response to Katrina that the Salon Web site compiled a ”Reporters Gone Wild” video clip. Tim Russert, Anderson Cooper, Ted Koppel and Shepard Smith were among the stars.

The mute button seemingly in place since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been turned off.

”By dint of the fact that our country was hit we’ve offered a preponderance of the benefit of the doubt over the past couple of years,” the ”Nightly News” anchorman said. ”Perhaps we’ve taken something off our fastball and perhaps this is the story that brings a healthy amount of cynicism back to a news media known for it.”

If you have any interest in the video they refer to here, Reporters Gone Wild, you can check it out at Salon.com (you have to have a subscription or a Daily Pass) or the mirror site. It is a great 10 minute movie. I recommend you watch it, if you have the time.

They were an obvious linchpin for evacuating a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars. Yet the federal, state and local officials who had failed to round up buses in advance were now in a frantic hunt. It would be two more days before they found enough to empty the shelters.

The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.

An interesting 6 page article.

The dispute over Washington’s role in saving lives in New Orleans and in the future threatens to make incumbents from both parties among Katrina’s casualties, several officials said. With the popularity of Congress and President Bush sagging before the crisis, many officials said Bush and lawmakers made their situation worse by pointing fingers and digressing into political warfare with rescue operations still underway.

The aftermath of the past two weeks is almost certain to have a long echo. The billions of dollars already committed — with many predicting the sum will eventually reach into the hundreds of billions — is enough to make the New Orleans catastrophe a dominant factor in Washington’s ritual battles over spending priorities for the balance of Bush’s term. And the question of accountability — fixing responsibility for what went wrong in the troubled early days of the rescue effort — promises to color congressional debate for the next year or more.

Well, I sure hope something changes…