Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?

"The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs."

And...

"The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, 'The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need.'"

Read more...

So where did all that money go?

More on FEMA background. (Don't be fooled by the date: September 3)

U.S. Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent - New York Times

Some recovery!

Interesting that the poverty rate has risen each of the last four years, and income has declined most in the red states.

Of course, "the poverty number is still much better than the 80s and early 90's." Let's see, what party was in power during that time? The article goes on to imply that the economic boom of the Clinton years is the reason why poverty is still lower than it was in the early nineties.

John Conyers in Petaluma!

Amazingly, John Conyers came all the way to Petaluma to attend a fundraiser for Lynn Woolsey. He is a wonderfully unprepossessing, accessible guy, and after his talk he wandered through the crowd, answering questions and eating barbecued Petaluma chicken.

I was there to collect signatures for Clean Money, of course, and got lots of interest and support, though some of the official Democrats were a little weird. I met three candidates for Joe Nation's assembly seat there, two of whom are friends of mine and both eager for my vote. It's kind of uncomfortable. I wish they'd all get together and decide who's going to run; because otherwise the well-heeled Republican-in-disguise is going to win when all the progressives take votes from each other.

The real judicial activists

Is John Roberts Too Much of a Judicial Activist? - New York Times

Least Church-Going Rich Countries Give Most

Least Church-Going Rich Countries Give Most

Admittedly, it's more complicated than that, especially in this report, with its various and confusing indexes, but there are some interesting implications to the data. One is that countries that support a socially involved government do little private giving--apparently trusting that the government will act in behalf of the citizens.

On the other hand, in a country like the U.S., where people have been taught over the last 30 years that the government is not to be trusted, there is little government giving and a relatively high amount of private giving. On a private level, the U.S. is one of the more generous countries, but if you add together both private and government giving, we still come out near the bottom.

There are some ramifications to this. Is there a connection between being religious and not trusting the government? Or does it have more to do with what level of group organization you identify with?

A friend who lived in Denmark for a year remarked that Scandinavian countries are tribal. The citizens regard each other as members of the same extended family, so the government is, for them, like a family organization. There is a high level of trust, a willingness to give to the government for undertakings they believe are for the good of the tribe and for others in the world, and an expectation that the government won't be corrupt. And indeed, Scandinavian governments are the least corrupt in the world. Perhaps corollary to this, the tribe mentality gives Scandinavians the sense of belonging that citizens in other countries seek in their churches.

In the United States, composed of the rejects from other tribes living in uneasy proximity, the government tends not to be seen as a voice of the people, no matter that democratic government is supposed to be just that. Our many competing tribes, and the large number of us who have no tribe, tend to see other tribes and the government as outsiders who don't have their best interests at heart.

Well, that's my theory. Do you have a better one?

Clean Money?

Yes. And we're not talking money laundering here. We're talking money in politics. The beauty of it is that it is for Republicans, Democrats, Greens, and whoever, including John McCain and Theodore Roosevelt.


So Saturday I went to Sol Fest, the alternative energy fair that attracts people from across the country, and signed about 180 people up to support the legislative initiative (AB 583) to bring Clean Money campaign finance reform to California. See, AB 583 will have public hearings in the fall in three locations around California. This on account of a bunch of us going to Sacramento last spring with brooms and lobbying for Clean Money at the Elections Committee hearing.

Legislators don't like Clean Money because they've already worked the system and gotten their special interest support. But there were so many of us at the hearing and so much press that they didn't dare just give Clean Money the thumbs down. So they postponed the decision. Now we have to get so many people to come to these hearings that there won't be room for them in the room, attracting press just like the Sacramento hearings did in the spring.

Okay, enough with the links already. Each one requires more html than I want to deal with. I don't know how people who don't know any html can manage a blog.

But the point to remember is, for about the price of a latte and biscotto a year, we can own our own politicians, who will listen to our needs instead of what special interests like corporations and unions want them to do.

Would you pay $5 to buy back your representatives?

Blogging in Bed

Yes, I can do that now! Bed is where I drink my coffee and read my morning newspapers. Steve is making gentle whuffling sounds next to me. All is peaceful. I've already shared moments with several people in Iraq, checked the weather and TV listings, and answered mail, all through my little black magic box.

You can tell I'm new at this blog stuff.

I talked to my daughter a few days ago. She commented on her upbringing as the scion an earnest right-wing idealogue and a granola-crunching, Zen Buddhist leftie. What was a girl to rebel against?

A prototypical moment in her upbringing came at a gathering of my Zen friends during high school, when James, balding but still pony-tailed, tried to persuade her to ditch college, be really brave and educate herself.

"This," Nina laughs, "from a friend of my mother's at a time when I was writing applications, applying for scholarships, and working my tail off on my grade point average."

(Nina wound up at Yale, forever deprived of the wonder of self-education.)

I've known brilliant people who were better off educating themselves, but they are not us. The genetic line Nina and I share requires structure to get anything done. Otherwise it's trashy novels and surfing from morning til night. What would I ever accomplish without the twin scourges of deadlines and an unquiet social conscience?

Speaking of deadlines... over and out.

What was I saying?

My memory is going. Sometimes it’s embarrassing and a little frightening. When you can’t remember where you are going, or what you were going to do, or the password you just created, no, not even the username. I still have the presence of mind to write such things down so I can find them, but there’s a moment of panic when I forget that I’ve written them down. It’s getting harder to get through the day.

I’m going to need to get a whole lot more organized, be stricter about putting things away. No more leaving the filing in piles that get transported to boxes and then shoved in closets and under desks and then have to be dragged out and sifted through every time you need a document. You should have seen me trying to do my taxes today.

At least I didn’t forget them.

Sunday morning, off to the Santa Rosa Farmers Market to tout Clean Money. Couldn’t seem to remember what to tell people as I tried to get them to accept a handout, to sign the petition, to engage in some way. So I stumbled all over the place. I’m not sure Linda did a whole lot better, though. Still, I'm grateful. This woman has been a stalwart, the only one to volunteer for the two farmers market tablings. It's such an important cause, and so hard to drum up enthusiasm for it.

Then to Forestville to meet with the ladies, the cherished cousins in the sangha and detritus from its meltdown, the ones who said, enough, and got out. It was the usual "power-corrupts scenario," and nowhere more so than in a zendo. We have that bond, that we’re refugees from something that was once really important to us. It’s where we all met each other, struggled with our demons together. We used to get together and eat cookies, drink tea, write, and read out loud what we’d written.

So why don’t we keep in touch better?

It used to be I had to get offline when I went to bed. Now with DSL and wireless, I can take the Internet to bed with me. Get up in the morning and read the New York Times with my coffee, a cherished practice I had given up when I stopped all the print newspapers.

I’m a little concerned about this. I don’t know if it’s good for your soul to be always chasing the latest in cyberspace. Honestly, Steve spent six hours today and maybe ten yesterday sitting in front of the computer. He has to read, and maybe respond to, the Poor Man, the Cosmic Iguana, Thom Hartmann, Truthout, Talking Points Memo, Strongbad; and then all the links from each one. He sends me the links. Then I have to read them and THEIR links, in addition to the stuff I read and all its links. There’s too much to know. Information overload!

Yesterday Jane told of having quite a profound religious experience. What precipitated it? Sitting down and doing nothing! Walking across the grass with no motive, meeting the grass with each step. KAZAAM!

Remember when...?

Remember when dates used to begin with "19"? When you had to stop at a gas station to make a phone call? When folks used to elect the president?

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/voter_fraud.html

First Post

My very own blog! Talk about narcis-
sism. Okay, here's a pretty picture so it's not just about me. This is one of the larger weed gardens in California, in both senses of the word larger, since it is in Sequoia National Park.