WHAT'S UP WITH BARBOUR? – His Latest SCHEME

In a Clarion Ledger article for Feb. 7th., our illustrious Gov. Barbour wants to DIVERT $$$ FROM KATRINA GRANT FUNDS to help DESIGN ROADS for a TOYOTA plant in North Mississippi !!! WHAT ????

What will Barbour think of next !! I never cease to be amazed and discombobulated over what it is that these politicians and friends of politicians can come up with! Diverting money from Katrina aid for N. MS ROADS??? I live in N. MS (just got back from the coast) and that is ridiculous! Why did the money not have "strings" attached to it that would ultimately benefit those who need it MOST-- Katrina's devastated people??? Instead, it appears that the "strings" were put in place to do exactly what Barbour thought he could get away with -- such as building 3 new casinos (like we need any more of those) and up to 3,000 hotel rooms??? with HUD money ???!!! Hey, maybe those without homes could live in those fancy hotel rooms to come. . .

As for the road situation, I can tell you that Hwy. 78 from Holly Springs to Memphis is a pathetic piece of crap!! It's BEEN a piece of crap for a long while now. It needed a make-over, but what does the state do? Tries to "fix" or "patch" it by tearing up sections in the right lanes from Holly Springs to Memphis and back by turning holes into continuous bumps. It is so bouncy and noisy that I refuse to drive in the right lanes - it makes my stomach hurt. That road is a disgrace to people coming into our state, but diverting money from Katrina funds is WRONG!!! Where's your head Barbour? Your got Toyota here, now make Toyota pay for the d.... roads!!!

FEMA SLOWS COAST'S REBUILD + The $600 MILLION MAN - A DEBACLE

Moody's Court - a beautiful past.


Still in Katrina daze. Entrance to St. Michael's. This face expresses best my feelings about the recovery/rebuilding issues that have not been dealt with in a timely, respectful, and caring manner by the powers that be.


Well, well, well, what else did we really expect from FEMA? It's been 2 years and 5 months since Katrina obliterated the Gulf Coast and less than 1/4th. of the 10,833 public rebuilding projects are finished. Given the fact that FEMA was initially headed up by an idiot who was given the job by another idiot who moved the agency into the so-called "homeland security" department, what else, indeed, should we expect? It's all a joke, and a very bad one. It's a bad dream I wish we all could wake up from.

For one thing, FEMA's little penny counters are haggling with Long Beach Mayor Billy Skellie about paying for the overtime that the fire and police departments had to work in those initial days and weeks after Katrina hit. Pathetic! FEMA isn't "satisfied" with the first responders' time sheets. Now let me see. . . umm, there's someone over there in a tree waiting for help and there is a body on a rooftop which is smashed on the ground and we have no communications, or food, or water, and the offices were gutted and filled with someone else's debris. . . umm where did I put my time sheet? And I can't find a pencil. Ahh, FEMA.

On top of that, many people are in limbo. People are still in trailers . . . with formaldehyde !!! For Pete's sake! Now that's a real pretty picture of America and what we are "supposed" to stand for. Seems to me most of the people running this country, and those who vote them in again and again just don't give a flying rat's ass about anything but themselves, money, and Iraq.

Then you have our illustrious Gov. Barbour who diverts $600 million from the HUD grant monies for AFFORDABLE HOUSING to expand the port at Gulfport! WHAT???

This expansion will encompass 210-acres which will include a new shipping terminal and channel (to be expected I imagine), BUT it will also include "three new casinos and as many as 3,000 hotel rooms." Now it seems to me, since there was separate money to rebuild the lost bridges, there should have been money in a separate package for repairing the port. And especially so if it included, of all things, casinos and hotels! You tell me why HUD money should pay for casinos and hotels?? I'm waiting . . .

To no avail, Maxine Waters, D-Calif., urged HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson to oppose the diversion plan (thank you Rep. Waters). However, Jackson said there was "specific congressional language" that kept him from denying Barbour's request. Word is, that ain't especially true. Waters stated her concern: "I am suspicious that Barbour receives favored treatment with this administration. He kind of gets his way." Duh! NSS!!

In my humble opinion, this is an outrage! But then again, "what's good for business ___" you fill in the blanks, I'm too ill over it all. I need to clear my head of this debacle so I'm going to the coast to Mardi Gras and . . . laissez bon temps roulez . . . until I return to blog again. Oh, and I won't be staying in a condo or casino!
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Some Tiny FEMA Stats to mull over –
Rebuilding on the Mississippi Gulf Coast:

Total large projects: 2,564

Total large projects closed: 731

Total small projects: 8,269

Total small projects closed: 1,693

Total projects: 10,833

Total closed: 2,424

Source: FEMA

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Clarion Ledger - FEMA Slowing Coast Building


$600 Million Dollar Port Deal


Clarion Ledger

St. Michael's Catholic Church, gutted by Katrina. Beach Blvd., Biloxi – Nov. 2007.

Barbourism - "MOVING FOREWARD TOGETHER"

I Can't Stand this CRAP!

Well folks, the signs are springing up around the hill country town of Oxford, MS... an so desperately so, that they were posted East of Lamar Blvd. approximately every hundred feet or so along University Ave. on CITY property! I couldn't believe my eyes. Thankfully, someone "voluntarily" and/or purposefully removed them by the evening on the same day of posting. Funny, I was going to do that.

Anyway, I found a sign laying over in the parking lot of Home Depot today and so I grabbed it and brought it home. Not because I'm a Barbourite, either.

That barbarous phrase of his, "Moving Foreward Together" stung me as a lie. It's ironic that such a phrase should be used at this point in time relative to Katrina and Barbour's other phrase, "recover, rebuild, renew." Bogus! Does he think people like me who pay attention to the coast and its issues TWO YEARS after Katrina are blind? Does he think people living, or trying to live, in places like Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Pearlington, and Waveland are actually included in his thinking when "Moving Foreward Together" was formed as his mantra for making him Governor again? PEOPLE ARE STILL in FEMA TRAILERS for Pete's sake!!

Once again, words out of the mouths of politicians are like air. Empty. They mean nothing when it comes to the reality of certain issues on the coast.

I suppose also that Barbour's television ad with the whispery-soft voice of a dense southern belle touting the number of jobs he has helped bring into our state is supposed to make us all feel warm and fuzzy. I swear, I didn't know that he had helped create 60 whole new jobs in Bay St. Louis and the 270 "Coming Soon" jobs in Pearlington! That should make everything as right as rain for the coast. That should really fix em up down there. A few jobs and all is well... you know, the bootstrap theory?!

The tragedy with this whole gubernatorial race and the "issues" these two nut jobs are trying to bribe us with is that we have NO ONE that really and trully speaks for "the people" – the ones who SHOULD be included in the so-called "Moving Foreward Together" theory, but are NOT!

No one to vote for. A truly sad day. And people don't think this country needs a third or even a fourth party...

Oh, and gubernatorial should probably be spelled "goobernatorial."