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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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no southerners out there?
We’ve been kinda busy, Boo!
😉
Howdy! Brin’s right, we’ve been kinda busy down here! I know that life here in central MS is not going to be “normal” for quite some time. Katrina still has everybody here in something of a state of disarray. My brother STILL does not have phone service, and he lives in the city limits of Jackson. There are still piles of cut up trees and debris along the sides of every city street and we’re just recovering from the gasoline scare associated with hurricane Rita.
The shelters are still open here and still folks to feed and house. The streets are full of cars with Louisiana and Mississippi’s southern county license plates, contributing to traffic jams the likes of which we only see during the Christmas shopping season….
I haven’t had time to post much in the past couple of weeks because of my dad’s health problems and I am depressed about not going to D.C. to do my patriotic duty and also to meet everyone. Kudos to those who did.
I’ve noticed that the “South” thread here hasn’t been getting much attention lately. I’ve been meaning to leave some pithy and pertinent southern commentary here, but, alas, I have no pithy and pertinent comments in me….
Instead, I’ll give you guys a link to update you on the local MS news. It’s a site with a mostly right-wing POV, but it does link to newspapers around the state. The hot-button issue right now is whether to allow casinos to relocate on land. The Southern Baptist Convention has come out against it and, for once, I’m in agreement with them. I’m not “morally” against gambling, I just don’t wanna see it become the industry of choice for every community in MS.
Thanks, Booman, for all that you do and for restarting the southern thread! I’m drinking coffee from one of my new Booman Tribune mugs as I write this!
Hey, thanks for getting a mug.
Do you think they could pass a law that says the casinos can only be within a mile of the beach or river or something? Or even closer?
Well, to his credit, (once again I find myself gritting my teeth in agreement) Guvna Hollow Bubba has said that they should be “touching the water” or some such. However, given the history of the gambling industry’s ride down a slippery slope here in MS, the anti-gambling forces are trying hard to keep the “line drawn in the sand” where it has been for the last ten years or so.
Gambling started with cruises into international waters from Biloxi, and now is allowed permanent floating casinos on the water, sort of mimicking boats. Remember MS is a state where we still have “dry” counties left over from prohibition days. The introduction of gambling is anathema to the religious fundamentalists, and they have fought it hard each step of the way. We have defeated state lottery bills at least four or five times now.
For a deeper look into MY motivation for supporting their stance against giving the gambling interests an inch, you should understand that there is a huge push (under the radar of course) to get gambling into the city of Jackson along the Pearl River. In order to accomplish this goal, the powers that be are pushing a river development project that will destroy huge amounts of wetlands and urban forest along the river.
I could write you a paper about the destructive results of the “flood control” project they are trying to do here, but I won’t bore you with details. It’s the typical water project boondoggle and land grab by developers. It is also a thin disguise IMO to get a good place to dock a gambling boat. It would destroy the natural beauty in the heart of our metro area in the name of “economic development”…
In the end, though, I believe that the gambling industry will get what it wants along the coast. But I don’t really see why, as they could sink one of those “boats” every six months and still make a huge profit. We have had several hurricanes come through the general area in the past few years and the casinos have never had a problem until this one. I don’t really believe they would have fared much better during Katrina even if they were land-based, as the destruction was nearly total for most hotels and such anyway.
Forgot to mention the wetlands that the casinos destroyed to put the boats out there in the first place…. The current placement of the boats gives the Sec. of State,who is in charge of wetlands and is also an elected official in MS, additional jurisdiction over the gambling boats. If they are allowed on land, this additional oversight would not be germane. The gambling industry wants this, as they have recently been scalded by the Sec. of State’s office on a number of issues.
Blueneck, not a bad name at all. The best highway in my state of Arkieville heads right to Tunica, MS. I just drove a round trip of 19 miles to get into a wet county to buy beer, so I would say you folk in Mississippi aren’t doing too bad, I hope the reconstruction (!) gets going better and that some better policies on environmental issues are adopted, but I wouldn’t bet on it either. Regards to you, BD.
Welcome, blackdog. By your user id number, I see you are new around here. Make yourself known, if you like, at the Froggy Bottom Cafe (whichever version is the latest one is usually in the recommended list).
Nice to hear from an Arkansan. I have always thought that AR was most like MS of all the states. We have much in common, as states go. Even AR and MS accents are closest throughout the South, in my opinion. AL and GA and TX accents are too harsh. TN and KY are too hillbilly. LA has the french influence. That leaves us. What do you think?
And as for dry counties, we’ve got ’em here, too. Several MS counties are completely dry. I live in Jackson, which is about as ‘wet’ a place as you get in MS outside of the casinos. But still, last call for alcohol is 1:55am, because its illegal to sell after 2am.
hey, who are you calling hillbilly!!!!!!!?????? NOt me! I am a transplanted yankee…;o)
Welcome blackdog. Yes you need to make yourself visable in the cafe`. hugs and welcome.
Newb from Lafayette, LA here – have lurked forever, finally created an account. =)
Welcome to the pond! I’m glad you finally took the plunge. Lafayette’s a nice place. I live in Jackson, MS.
Welcome turbodog, do come and chat with us…or rather meant to say ribbit ribbit….;o) pick yourself a lilypad and stay a while for we all want to get to know you. Love your area of the world. Glad you came….hugs
Well, the gambling forces won the right to come on shore, and now there is a bill in our state House that, if passed, would allow gambling everywhere.
This is where my old time religion kicks in: The devil and his angels know exactly where the weaknesses are, and who can be bought off and how much it will take.
We lived in Iowa when gambling came in – and then mostly left. As an example of what it does, it ruined one of the prettiest and most successful small towns on the Mississippi. Restaurants went out of business, as did much of the downtown district. Lots of people were persuaded to invest their life savings in those riverboat casinos. Gambling revenue targeted for education was used as an excuse for cutting state funding to education. And the need for social services rose precipitously: gambling addiction, bankruptcy, house foreclosures, divorces, children placed on welfare, and families reduced to penniless existence. When the owners decreed that the profits weren’t high enough, they left, and the city’s lost businesses did not recover.
And we are seeing what casinos do here in Detroit as well. Every year they through big splashy party and give a pittance of money to some child-serving organization. They are so craven.
I hate the thought of my home state having that blight present. Mississippi, with all of its ills, has come a long way in the past 50 years, but it still has far to go, and this will not help.
KidSpeak, I’m sorry to hear of your experiences in watching gambling destroy communities. I hope that MIssissippi will avoid complete surrender to the forces involved. I will do what I can to stop it.
Thanks for stopping by the SOUTH thread to share with us.
Check out annatopia’s diary for more info.
Check out glitterscale’s diary on Paul Morrison who is running for Attorney General in Kansas. He switched his party affiliation from R to D. Woohoo!
check out http://www.bruderly06.com , the website of Dave Bruderly, Democrat running in the Florida Sixth. I am his campaign manager and we have a blog up and running, here is the first entry from it:
http://www2.boomantribune.com/hotlist/add/2005/10/27/19524/813/displaystory//Diary
Let me know what you think!
I wrote a bit about the Reid thing. I think it’s at least moderately interesting. Check it out:
http://www.boomantribune.com/hotlist/add/2005/11/1/185716/301/displaystory//Diary
On November 13th, Harry Reid, Joe Biden and Barack Obama will be in Dallas for a public rally. Yes, they’re here to pick up funds for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, but they’re also here to buck up support for local Dems.
I will be there, and I hope anyone else in drivin’ distance of Dallas will be, too. Here are the details:
November 13, 2005
Lee Park
3333 Turtle Creek Blvd.
Dallas, TX 75219
Rally starts at 3pm. Hope to see you there!
South steps of the capitol, Sun. Nov 6th. 1:30pm.
Hey, ya new comers, from Tennessee. WElcome aboard. Good to have you here.
Asheville, NC here.
GordonNC, Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hugs and pick youself a lily pad and start to ribbit and we will listen. So good to have you here with us.
Mainly for Turbodog, glad to see your site. Are you aware of any other liberal or liberal leaning La. blogs? Well, I’ve started. my blog, but there don’t seem to be many.
Also, for anyone in Texas, what’s been the reaction to the Texas Genco deal? I saw the one story in last week’s Times (buried in the financial section) and then nothing. All I found searching, was some conservative in Houston taking offense at the tone, ignoring the placement of course.
Howdy bayoustjohndavid, welcome to the pond. I recently crossed paths with you in the comments at “No More Mister Nice Blog”, concerning a post there about the Katrina relief that was triggered by this article in the NYT.
I never followed up with you there, because we are basically on the same page, but I did prepare a graphic that helps debunk some the original NYT article. I was looking for a place to paste it where someone might actually care, so I’m taking this opportunity to share it with you:
As you can see, 220 miles from the coast, Katrina was still slinging quite a punch in MS and AL. By this time it was well clear of LA, so the comparison based on number of miles inland in the NYT article was an unfounded slander.
Also, from about 150 to 200 miles inland in MS, Katrina was dropping a significant number of tornadoes as she moved north, which you can see here if you click through the tornadoes graphic. 47 out of 82 counties in MS were declared disaster areas, and I personally think that’s about right. Maybe a few counties got on the gravy train without cause, but not many.
Also, it is noteworthy that over the course of the past months, the discussions at Jeff Masters WeatherUnderground blog (which is imho the best site with comments by knowledgeable local weather hounds) are in serious disagreement with the official National Weather Service statistics on the storm, as am I. As a matter of fact, I and many others disagree with the damage assessment graph that I based the above graph on. I think the bands should be upgraded by one level across the board. As an example, I have a weather-conscious friend in Memphis who told me “some limbs down”, not just “small trees swaying”. As for Jackson, it should be on the edge of the yellow band, meaning that we had almost all power out, not just “some power out”.
I do agree with you that LA suffered the greatest total damage from Katrina plus Rita, and that LA should get more dollars in aid than MS. However, FEMA screwed us all. That is not a MS vs. LA issue, as we agreed.
Anyways, I hope you don’t mind me hanging this on your comment here. It’s nice to see you here. I’ve bookmarked your blog, as I’m also interested in all deep south blogs. I have a few to share(none in LA, though, I don’t think) but I’ll have to post them later, as I am now about to “hit the hay” as we say down here. 🙂
Hey Blueneck, I thought recognized the name. I figured we were more or less on the same page. At the time I wasn’t thinking about the fact that “disaster area” has more of a legal than descriptive meaning, even though I was aware of that. I certainly wasn’t trying to get into an La. vs. Miss. thing (it’s obvious who’d benefit from that). That post on NO MORE MNB occurred soon after I heard Bobby Jindal suggest that La.’s aid request should be in line with Mississippi’s $33B. He still hasn’t responded to an email asking him to clarify that statement since levee repair and coastal restoration could cost more than that without any pork.
I haven’t heard anyone else around here say it, but it seems like too much of a coincidence that the Pres. started to fudge on reconstruction financing when the bidding process came under criticism. It seems to me like it’s a case of not being willing to spend the money at all if they can’t give it to their friends. Am I being too cynical, or has anyone in Mississippi suggested that?