K+10...What It Means To Remember Katrina

And by Remember, I mean remembering the sociopolitical circumstances that led to so much tragedy and loss...and not repeating them. People didn't suffer and die for us to forget, declare everything "OK," and merely move on and recreate the same conditions. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Mayor Landrieu.)

The Definition of Class Warfare

Concept of the Day: DOUBLE STANDARD

Hey kids! Today's concept is: DOUBLE STANDARD. As in, "The Republicans seem to espouse a double standard when judging private sector and government sector finances."

The piece What's Good Enough for GE is Good Enough for the United States argues the point that S&P's downgrading of the U.S.'s credit rating was widely met with snorts and chuckling. Why?

Still, it’s true that federal debt held by the public has reached 60 percent of GDP, while tax revenues remain around 20 percent of GDP. 60 percent of GDP is a lot! And double, nearly triple, tax revenue! What would we call a company with outstanding debt double or even triple its revenues, and expected to keep the highest bond rating?

We would call it General Electric. As recently as 2007, GE had an S&P rating of AAA with outstanding debt at over three time revenues...

Even Transocean, which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig for BP, managed an A- rating prior to the spill, with a debt-revenue ratio similar to what the federal government has now. [J.W. Mason, New Deal 2.0]

We all know the conservative mantra, spouted ad nauseum from our Gret Stet of Looziana to the congressional halls of the Beltway: "Government should be run like a business!" As it turns out, the government is already run like a business. So thank you, Republicans. Your work here is done. You can all step down from your lives of public service now and go home.

Like After Katrina, Outside Folks Getting the Disaster Contracts

The fine folk over at The Lens informed the citizenry today that "Gulf Coast states lag behind other states in getting contracts for oil disaster work." Only 12% of the $53.3 million in federal oil-spill related contracts have gone to Louisiana companies. Most of the rest of that has been contracted to companies in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Colorado -- not to other Gulf Coast states suffering the direct environmental and socioeconomic consequences of this disaster.

People in other states need work too, and it seems quite plausible to me that some of corporations best able to execute the particular terms of some contracts are not Gulf Coast business. Maybe many Gulf Coast businesses were already at full capacity due to having already received state or local contracts or contracts directly from BP to do disaster-related work.

My point is I just don't know enough about the details to know whether we're getting shafted down here in the federal contracting game for this disaster. I do know, based on past experience, that we need to dig deeper into this before it becomes like the Katrina recovery in which local workers were brazenly left out of the citizen driven recovery we were promised. That is, if it's not too late. I blogged about it on 9/16/2006, and I'm going to be quite pissed if this sort of thing is happening again...

The Army Corps, Bechtel and Halliburton are using the very same "contract vehicles" in the Gulf Coast as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" open-ended "contingency" contracts that are being abused by the contractors on the Gulf Coast to squeeze out local companies. These are also "cost-plus" contracts that allow them to collect a profit on everything they spend, which is an incentive to overspend. [Corpwatch.org, 8/17/2006]

...and we were supposed to have learned our lesson so that our federal government could protect us from shady contract deals.

I hope that last part didn't make you laugh TOO HARD.

"Ain't Nobody Gonna Wanna Eat an Oirly Crab"

Wise commercial fisherman Oliver Rodesil aptly summed up the latest predicament facing south Louisiana (at about the 2:00 mark). Definitely the quote of the day.

Dear Gov. Jindal, Do The Right Thing

Dear Governor Jindal,

I was so pleased to hear that you understand and are concerned about the link between dropping out of school and ending up in prison, and that you would like to address these problems.

Every year 14,000 high school students drop out of school. Every year we lock up about 14,000 people in our prisons. I don't think that's a coincidence. -Gov. Bobby Jindal on his initiatives to reduce Louisiana's dropout and recidivism rates. [Times Picayune, 1/4/09, p. A-13]

I was not so pleased to read on the very same newspaper page your plans to stave off a projected $341 million budget shortfall by delaying the opening of a mental health crisis center in New Orleans and by canceling plans to add 6 inpatient beds to the N.O. Adolescent Hospital. You should be aware that a recent study shows that children in LA impacted by Hurricane Katrina currently suffer from physical and mental health problems at rates double that of homeless children in New York City.

NY Times 12/5/08:
...41 percent under age 4 had iron-deficiency anemia -- twice the rate for children in New York City's homeless shelters. Anemia, often attributable to poor nutrition, is associated with developmental problems and academic underachievement.

More than half of those ages 6 to 11 had a behavior or learning problem, yet in the East Baton Rouge School District children can wait for as long as two years to be tested for learning disabilities.

...many of the children of Hurricane Katrina are behind in school, acting out and suffering from extraordinarily high rates of illness and mental health problems. Their parents, many still anxious or depressed themselves, are struggling to keep the lights on and the refrigerator stocked.

Governor, these are the children most likely to not finish high school and then end up in jail, and these are the very children that your budget cuts will hurt most. I think that the Obama administration and Congress would be hard-pressed to hand over $450 million for a new Charity hospital to a state that won't even spend $4.25 million to address the dire needs of its own citizens, needs which should have been addressed 3 years ago now.

Show us that you care about your citizens. Let us know whether a man of God would choose $385,040 in pay raises for 6 Cabinet members already making six figures a year over thousands of families who have nowhere else but you to turn to for survival. Six psychiatric inpatient beds at NOAH will cost $250,000.

Governor Jindal, do the right thing this time.

Idiots!

2 doctors weigh in on health reform

From a T-P article on the two new physician congressmen from Louisiana:

Both hope to hear from the president-elect, or his top health aides, so they can advocate for measures that put more emphasis on patient responsibility and free market solutions to Obama's campaign promise to provide coverage to more than 40 million uninsured Americans.

Because that has been working so well for the American people? Honestly, do you know ANYONE who is pleased with the cost and quality of their health insurance or who isn't hassled by her health insurance provider when it really counts (i.e., other than a quick well visit to the doctor)? Do we really need to advocate for more emphasis on free market solutions? Isn't that what we already have? It sounds a lot like Nagin's repopulation plan.

Oh wait. That wasn't a plan at all. Just like this isn't a fucking plan either!!

As for patient responsibility, last I heard, the patients' responsibility to pay for medical treatments not covered by their expensive health insurance is a main cause of personal bankruptcy filings. But Congressmen, you're right. The American people need more bills. It's not like there's a mortgage crisis or rising unemployment or a financial market meltdown or anything!

Now for the piece de resistance:

But Cassidy also spoke about working across party lines to get affordable homeowners insurance to south Louisiana residents ...

"If our workers can't afford to live near the refineries, pipelines and shipyards that serve the entire nation, then our whole national economy suffers, " Cassidy said.

So, healthcare insurance...leave to the market forces. Homeowners insurance...too important to leave to the market forces? Huh? People not being able to afford healthcare insurance...no threat to the economy, but people not being able to afford homeowners insurance in Louisiana...threat to the whole national economy?

What the...?

Idiots, I tell you. Fucking idiots.

We're watching you, Congressmen. We're watching.

OMG! Obama Said "Spread the Wealth"!

Yes, at first I cringed too when Obama told Joe the Plumber he intends to "spread the wealth." However, by using my brain [dammit, I already lost 1/3 of the Republicans reading this], I realized that my reaction was nothing more than the knee-jerk response Americans have been indoctrinated to have towards anything remotely socialist-sounding. After a few more minutes of thinking, and without the help of Limbaugh or Hannity, I realized that spreading the wealth is as American as...well, as Obama.

In case you missed the last couple of weeks trying to decipher the transcript of Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric, you may have heard tidbits about some sort of $700 billion bail out for Wall Street. You see, that's where the American people's wealth was spread to billion-dollar corporations who fell short of their original goal of spreading our personal wealth to themselves using bad mortgages as their drive-thru-bank-cannister-vacuum-chute-like-thingy vehicle of choice. My fellow Americans, you may have also noticed that you've been spreading a bit more of your wealth to oil companies and then to credit card companies in the form of higher interest rates & late charges when you couldn't afford to pay them on account of having spent your bill money on gas for your automobile.

If you live along the coast, you'll definitely recall spreading pretty much all of your wealth to insurance companies that were already quite wealthy:

When insurers sharply boost premiums on the coasts, increase deductibles, refuse to renew policies or otherwise cut back coverage, policymakers often accept these steps as necessary to help the property/casualty insurance business meet the huge challenges it faces in a risky world filled with dangers that it cannot adequately measure...

...The financial reality of the property/casualty insurance industry couldn’t be more different than the carefully cultivated perception fostered by insurers. Insurers are paying out lower claims, charging higher premiums, reaping greater profits, and are more financially solid than at almost any time in history.

[p. 3, Property/Casualty Insurance in 2007: Overpriced Insurance, Underpaid Claims, Declining Losses and Unjustified Profits]

And remember when you made the decision to allocate your wealth for the worthy, moral cause of helping your countrymen and countrywomen rebuild their hurricane shattered lives? Well, our Republican leaders faithfully doled your wealth out in a heartily fashion -- to their already superwealthy pals.

So you see, America is all about spreading the wealth! I mean we love us some fuckin' wealth distribution!! Politicians love to talk about "sharing in the American dream." Remember to remind them -- and most importantly, remind yourselves -- that sharing in that dream requires sharing some of your own damn wealth back to you.

Just Mah Two Cents, Volume II

It's probably silly to label blog posts "Just Mah Two Cents," since the posts are all me putting in my two cents, more or less; but I like the title dammit. Today's two-cent contribution is this: I don't get all the apprehension people like State Treasurer John Kennedy are stirring up about LSU building a new $700 million+ medical complex to replace "Big Charity." [and why do they call it Big Charity? Is there a Little Charity?]. Kennedy even has Garland Robinette cowering in the corner with him.

It's an expensive project, no doubt, but the arguments against it ignore the advantages which, in my humble opinion, outweigh the cons. Charity is a shithole, and even if we could salvage it, why? The state could buy another building, but why? Why don't our citizens, poor or otherwise, deserve state of the art facilities allowing staff to provide the most technologically advanced care possible? If one of our city's biggest industries was medical care & research, what's wrong with creating a complex that will entice the best and brightest to come back? Research provides thousands of jobs and millions in revenue.

As someone who works in the field and interviewed at LSU/Charity, I can tell you firsthand that those are the things that push institutions above their competitors. My decision wasn't based on facilities, but even as a native who knew what a hellhole Charity was, I was MORTIFIED by the condition of a place where we expect people to go to get better. And the idea that rebuilding an LSU/Charity hospital means we go back to the same two-tier system we had before is ludicrous. The best hospitals are places where those with private and public insurance WANT to go for treatment; and a building has nothing to do with deciding on how health care will be paid for. Even if people on Medicaid have a "medical home," as is proposed, people still need to go to the hospital sometimes.

Lately our citizens' uncanny talent for choosing to not take bold, brave new steps that will likely benefit us, all the while choosing to take bold steps in the wrong direction(e.g., re-electing Jefferson) seems to be resurfacing. I hope we don't fuck this up too.

By the way, I decided to do my training in Chicago at a Top 10 ranked hospital.

America -- Nobody Shucks and Jives Around the Race Thing Better Than Us!

When are people going to get real about the immigration "debate" and admit it mostly boils down to race? If it doesn't, then why aren't Montana folks following the lead of those living on the border in New Mexico and trying to catch Canadians sneaking over? Because Canadians don't sneak over? Why not? Ohh, cuz we let them right in. And I mean, come on, alot of them stay. Truth be told, I think I've met more Canadians than Mexicans. Not only do they stay, they're more likely than Mexicans to work in coveted middle-class/professional jobs, jobs Americans want far more than say... picking grapes in California.

MONEY. OK, other than race, it boils down to money. U.S. openness to immigrants has always been directly tied to the need for labor. When did a lot of Asians get let in? When they needed 'em out West to build railroads. When did Europeans pour in? Could be wrong, but wasn't it during a period of rapid industrialization when factories needed workers and New Orleans needed poor Irish folks to dig canals? The whole premise of the slave trade was for cheap labor, and labor don't get no cheaper than free.

Mexicans wouldn't come if no one hired them. I think word would get back pretty quickly if most returned home in a few weeks because they couldn't find work. It's really a sick, hateful game we're playing with them. Demonizing them while we use them for profit.

I don't recall this being such a huge deal back during the booming mid-late 1990s. Weren't our borders more porous then, before 9/11, when it was even easier for Mexicans to sneak in? Why is the immigration thing getting so hot now? Because now that we're in an economic downturn and even White people are feeling the crunch, jobs have become more sacred; and people have become more anxious about losing their jobs.

In fact, they ARE losing their jobs -- to outsourcing and shrinking profits; and let me tell you, nothing gets a politician's attention like White folks gettin' laid off; and the politicians have to blame somebody for White folks having to suffer the indignity of collecting unemployment since they sure as hell won't blame the big corporations who fund their campaigns.

And it's not like Mexicans popped up out of nowhere. We did take/win/whatever their land, and we've been trying to nudge them out ever since. If we were 2nd graders this would have been solved already. The Mexicans would have said: "we were here first." And we would've taken our shit and gone to play in someone else's yard.

But seriously, why can't -- why WON'T -- Americans honestly talk about these things?