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2005-12-29 Home Front Economy

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Posted by Seafarious 2005-12-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Thanks for pointing this out to me.
I took the 'scenic' route in to the office downtown today for the first time in a month. Very little visible improvement - traffic signals still out, almost no people about. And surprisingly, on a gorgeous day like today, nobody working on anything. But there are now a few FEMA trailers in peoples' yards in Hollygrove.
I would blame the lack of progress on the politicians, who have given us the new #1 oxymoron - political leadership - but it's deeper than that ('in a democracy you get the government you deserve.') I could blame the insurance companies for being so slow to pay up - but there is plenty that could be getting done free, and isn't. Depression is almost epidemic (I saw in the paper this morning that a past friend couldn't take it and killed himself this week.)
But - Rebirth Brass Band is playing the Maple Leaf, so all is not lost!

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2005-12-29 01:08|| 2005-12-29 01:08|| Front Page Top

#2 Thank you, for the linky love.

I grow increasingly concerned that our fellow Americans are being forgotten. This is our tsunami. For the first time in memory, tens of thousands of Americans are living in third world conditions, wondering where their next meal is coming from, refugees in their own country.

The Gulf Coast recovery will take a decade or more. Here it is, four months after the worst disaster in American history and it's gone from our media.

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins 2005-12-29 08:53|| http://blog.simmins.org]">[http://blog.simmins.org] 2005-12-29 08:53|| Front Page Top

#3 Gone from the MSM - what did you expect? They can not beat Bush up without getting a lot of their own in the same blame-game, and it shows soemthign no liberal wants to show: that government is ineffective and is NOT the solution. So its of no use to the MSM and they will ignore it, like the suprisingly strong US economy, or the elections in Iraq.

The inability fo the 4th estate to report widely and fairly, to abandon their tacit political biases, is damaging the nation. Pinch Sulzburg and his elitist ilk need to be held accountable. Tar and feathers seem appropriate.

Posted by Oldspook 2005-12-29 10:13|| 2005-12-29 10:13|| Front Page Top

#4 You've probably seen the blue tarp roofs all over the surviving Gulf Coast buildings - today's New Orleans paper points out the cost of those things after applying layers of government contractors and bureaucracy - is around $175 a square, or roughly the same as a conventional new roof. Same system applies to pretty much everything from debris removal to levee repair. It's the only way they could possibly have spent the $30 billion + so far - about $15,000 per man, woman and child in the area. That's pretty amazing when you realize almost nothing has actually been rebuilt yet. In other words, America may not be 'forgetting' us, it just thinks (with good reason) that enough money has been spent that there shouldn't be a big problem.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2005-12-29 11:41|| 2005-12-29 11:41|| Front Page Top

#5 About two weeks ago one of the two local free weekly bettydcrockercrat papers ran an editorial about how horrible it was that Bush hadn't yet kept his promise to rebuild the gulf coast, and decried the "republican whisper campaign" about Louisiana's unfortunate history of corruption.

(As if it were some sort of historical anamoly, like the Pappy O'Daniel's Flour Hour or Huey Long's governorship, and there weren't corruption issues in the here and now about why the levees failed in the first place).

Posted by Phil 2005-12-29 12:02|| 2005-12-29 12:02|| Front Page Top

#6 However, Laurence Simon had a link to a Houston paper recently that the Houston school district has gotten a grand total of $165,000 from Uncle Sam, out of miliions promised to absorb all those NO schoolkids...

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-12-29 12:09|| 2005-12-29 12:09|| Front Page Top

#7 Seafarious - maybe the rest of the millions promised to Houston was chewed up in 'overhead'. That's how $2 worth of blue vinyl ends up costing $175. Or how the Air Force pays $500 for a $4 hammer.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2005-12-29 12:14|| 2005-12-29 12:14|| Front Page Top

#8 Pappy O'Daniel was a Cajun? Live and lern, I thought he was Texas all the way..... umm here's yur Louisiana story.

Mayor's Daddy Makes Out

Posted by Leon Clavin 2005-12-29 16:05|| 2005-12-29 16:05|| Front Page Top

#9 Em, thanks for posting this and thanks also to Chuck Simmins. I generally agree with Glenmore's observations about what things are like now. The scale and visual impact of the destruction in the residential areas of Orleans Parish just can't be conveyed, and I haven't even seen the Mississippi Gulf Coast yet.

Posted by Matt 2005-12-29 17:40|| 2005-12-29 17:40|| Front Page Top

#10 I think I'm starting to understand that the SOMEBODY who should be doing SOMETHING is...us.

Posted by Seafarious">Seafarious 2005-12-29 18:03|| 2005-12-29 18:03|| Front Page Top

#11 Matt -
My e-address in my posts is real - drop me a note and we can compare observations.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2005-12-29 18:48|| 2005-12-29 18:48|| Front Page Top

#12 Will do. We've got a powerful piece of work in front of us.

Posted by Matt 2005-12-29 19:02|| 2005-12-29 19:02|| Front Page Top

#13 Seafarious - I'm not sure who you mean by the 'us'. In my opinion the 'us' is mainly we who were affected - just get the f*** out of the way. Since probably mid-Oct or so I think the overall process has more been hindered by government than helped. Government needs to tell us the 'rules', pay what they promised to the lowest level possible, and then go away.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2005-12-29 19:07|| 2005-12-29 19:07|| Front Page Top

#14 Government can't win in these situations. They either pay $400 for a hammer today or take five weeks to purchase a $4 hammer, and use a ton of paperwork to do it.

There isn't enough money from government for what needs doing. The private efforts are so important. I'd like to see some banks choose to take a loss on the mortgages they now hold on bare ground, and forgive them. I'd like to see each and every little two bit politician stop posturing for the media. I'd like to see some planning for how folks with no money, no job and no home are supposed to return to the Coast. I'd like to see New Orleans hold an election on schedule. I'd like to see business micro loan programs to restart all the small businesses in the region. Heck, just get the traffic lights working.

This recovery ought to be a perfect example of the "can do" attitude of Americans, everything done twice as good in half the time. I'm certain the people of the Gulf Coast are capable of amazing things. Let's hope that the rest of America is willing to do the same.

Please keep me posted. I've been blogging this from day one and I'm not going to quit now.

Posted by Chuck Simmins">Chuck Simmins 2005-12-29 19:45|| http://blog.simmins.org]">[http://blog.simmins.org] 2005-12-29 19:45|| Front Page Top

#15 Given that what I sent to the Red Cross appears to have been largely wasted / squandered, I can only say that, in future, I will only trust the Salvation Army as an Org - and otherwise give directly to people - no middlemen need beg. Everyone's circumstances are different, but giving enough to really feel it struck me as the way to treat this. Now I consider myself to have received a painfully expensive personal lesson in fraud and waste.

Posted by .com 2005-12-29 19:51|| 2005-12-29 19:51|| Front Page Top

#16 I can't discuss this issue. My blood pressure will exceed the point of my body to keep it from boiling away.

Posted by 3dc 2005-12-29 20:08|| 2005-12-29 20:08|| Front Page Top

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